Three Blind Mice: Two Short Novels,Used

Review "CLARA KLEINSCHMIDT is wellcrafted, masterly, and a delight to read. THREE BLIND MICE is Kafkaesque in its intensity." CONFRONTATION, Fall, 1990/Winter, 1991"These two novellas make a quirky, lean, rapidfire book...whose bold intensity and intelligence is undeniably captivating." NEW LETTERS REVIEW OF BOOKS, Autumn, 1989 Product Description Clara Kleinschmidt: A former comedian with the Yiddish Theater, Clara takes the reader on an intimate journey through memories recalled against the backdrop of New York's 1920s. Three Blind Mice: Into the story of the widower Henry's obsessive love for his daughter Elise steps the wanton stranger, Mada, who destroys their bond from interested motives,and thus performs an excellent service. From Publishers Weekly In Clara Kleinschmidt , the first of the two novellas combined in Hebald's debut, selfexplorationdisjointed, dreamlike, contradictoryis itself explored. Elderly Clara, lonely, poor and a confessed liar, spins an impossible yarn related in puns and deliberate cliches and drawing on absurdist philosophy. After success as an actress in Yiddish theater, she abandons her career to get a Ph.D. But she is chiefly occupied by her lovers, from Thomashefsky to Professor Albert Gootman to Malachy Maloney, her mailman. After Clara's halfmad imaginings, the Three Blind Mice Henry, his daughter Elise and the seductive Madaappear to have more purpose. Widowed Henry, a poet whose parents were killed in the Holocaust, is obsessed by his daughter; his love drives her into a boring marriage. Eventually, the wanton Mada helps Elise break free of her bondage. The intensity of the narrators' highpitched emotions sometimes makes these stories difficult to read, but Hebald's attempt to articulate primal longings that are at bottom wordless produces some provocative writing. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. From the Author Three Blind Mice received McGrawHill nomination for the 198788 Editors' Book Award Pushcart Prize. From the Inside Flap CLARA KLEINSCHMIDT, an elderly spinster living in the New York slums, determines to reenter her past in order better to confront the present. The reader travels, as her intimate companion, through memories recalled against the backdrop of New York's 1920s. Beginning with her career in the Yiddish Theater, her adoration of Professor Gootman, of the malappropos Abel Mintz, our beguilingly pitiful narrator disarms and entertains us. Our friendship grows still closer, when in a breathtaking shift of tone she grips us by those dramas that are the wellsprings of comedy itself. We come full circle to the present. No longer are we smiling. This moving exploration of a heroine's inner world suddenly becomes our own. THREE BLIND MICE: Into a story about the widower Henry's obsession with his lovely daughter, Elise, steps the seductress, Mada, who destroys their bond from interested motives, thus performing an excellent service. Who would condone a love that inadvertently blinds and enslaves? Our hearts are entirely with Henry; our minds see the error of his ways. But who is the wanton Mada, whose desires excite our disgust, but whose actions ultimately redeem? Who is basically good? Who evil? Where does basically begin and end? This study of internal conflict draws the reader deftly to the forefront, as Elise breaks free from bondage in one of the most passionate celebrations of life to be found in American literature. From the Back Cover Carol Hebald writes magnificently. Few writers in the world today have such mastery of the art of the novella.Peter ViereckShe writes about pain and makes it funny.Jerry Stiller & Anne MearaExuberant and thoughtprovoking works by an original