Ex Libris: Yom Kippur in Amsterdam
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After publishing nearly a dozen volumes of critically-acclaimed literary non-fiction, Professor Maxim D. Shrayer has written his first book of fiction, Yom Kippur in Amsterdam, a newly-released collection of short stories that offers a captivating glimpse of Jewish-Christian relations.Shrayer, who holds teaching appointments in the Slavic and Eastern Languages and English departments, has written on a variety of non-fiction subjects, ranging from three collections of Russian poetry to his own literary memoir of teenage emigration to the United States from the former Soviet Union. Yom Kippur in Amsterdam provides a new genre for his ample literary skills.
The eight stories in Yom Kippur focus on characters with intricate and emotional relationships that cross traditional boundaries of ethnicity, religion and culture.
“The stories are not connected in terms of the narrative, but they are connected in terms of a thematic fabric,” explains Shrayer. “A number of the characters are either Jewish or grapple with relations with Jews.”
Shrayer says the stories are not autobiographical, “but they are certainly informed by the things that move me as a person, as an individual. I do not believe that you can write fiction that is not steeped in reality.”
“Trout Fishing in Virginia” is a tragic tale, Shrayer says, “about an American author who really doesn’t quite feel at home despite all of the accolades his work has received. He feels so inadequate.”
Two other stories, including the title entry, focus on the dilemmas faced by young lovers from different religious backgrounds whose life decisions are influenced by their own deeply-held faiths.
“This is my 14th year at Boston College and there is no question that my interest in Jewish-Christian relations has a lot to do with my sense of this place and my experience here,” says Shrayer, who will discuss Yom Kippur in Amsterdam on Nov. 11 in Devlin 101 at 7:30 p.m. “This is a work of fiction, but nonetheless, the issues that it deals with are very import to the University.
“It’s a challenging subject to write about,” he adds. “You can’t be ‘wishy-washy.’ You are talking about people’s beliefs.”