handwringers
by Sarah Mintz
Paperback (fiction)
4.25" x 6.875 · 153 pages
Release Date :May 2021
ISBN 9781989274477
In handwringers, self is a half-baked hope gleaned from various media, populating page after page with chattering anxiety circling identity, authenticity, religion, and culture.This collection of short stories revolves around Jewish identity and the schlemiel -- a figure in Jewish folklore described as "one who handles a situation in the worst possible manner or is dogged by an ill luck that is more or less due to his own ineptness." The schlemiel is not always apparent in the pages, but is continually evoked as a guiding concept, a tribute, an homage, and a narrative identity. The length and arrangement of the stories approximate a chaotic mediaexperience: clips, soundbites, advertisements, shows, films, photographs, the all-at-onceinternet; a disembodied head spins like a top in green and black holographic space -- is this thelikeness of a far-flung psyche or just a forgotten Much Music commercial? Collectively,moments of epiphany and/or crisis suggest fragments of self deliriously trying to assemble, clinging to would-be wisdoms and TV tag-lines, while failing to locate its/their misplaced community. It is a particularly apt book for our current world, where chaos and anxiety reign.
“handwringers places the reader on a kaleidoscopic carousel exploring contemporary Jewish identity with a momentum fueled by hilarity. Each piece in this sustained work presents a different face, voice, and perspective, collectively steamrolling stereotypes about Jewish people while celebrating a far-ranging and diverse sense of Jewishness today. The arrival of such an acrobatic and soulfully funny writer, one who offers dozens of distinct voices over a concise span of pages, heralds great anticipation for whatever she might come up with next.”
Sarah Mintz
Sarah Mintz grew up in Greenwood, Goose Bay, Victoria, Courtenay, Vancouver, Montreal, and maybe even Moose Jaw — depending on how one defines “grew up.” She’s worked at video stores, thrift stores, pet stores, managed buildings, shoveled snow, and answered the phone. As a recent graduate of the English M.A program at the University of Regina, her work has thus far appeared in Agnes and True, the University of Regina’s [space] journal, the Book*hug Anthology, Write Across Canada , and a chapbook forthcoming from JackPine Press. Sarah lives in Victoria, BC.
