Yid Lit: Steve Almond
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Steve Almond may have descended from rabbis, but his church is rock ‘n’ roll. His new book, the memoir “Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life” (Random House, 2010) is a tour through “drooling” fanaticism, the kind of music appreciation that borders on the insane. With the fervor of a religious leader, Almond writes about unsung musicians who, through their art, are willing to get naked. Emotionally that is. In his writing and his life, Almond is drawn to the clothes-less kind of naked too. He is part of a long history of sex-obsessed writers — one of the earliest may be the author of the Hebrew bible scroll, “Song of Songs,” which Almond deems a “booty call.”
Listen to the podcast below or subscribe on iTunes:
I met Almond at a writing conference, and knew then that he had a lot to say, both on the page and in person. We spoke recently about self-publishing (he put out a book of his own hate mail), the state of the nation and why punk rock is Jewish. Oh, and writing about sex, of course.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
