Cartoon Rabbi vs Cartoon Shteyngart

By Ezra Glinter July 19, 2010

We’ll probably be reaching Gary Shteyngart saturation soon, what with our recent review of “Super Sad True Love Story,” our forthcoming Yid Lit podcast, and of course, Shteyngart’s absurd little book trailer. But we would be remiss not to mention the new cartoon interview by Steve Sheinkin’s Rabbi Harvey with a cartoon version of Shteyngart, up today at JBooks.com. Editor Ken Gordon writes:

The cartoon you see here is one strange piece of online literary history. Gary Shteyngart — author of “Super Sad True Love Story” and a man whom Edmund White blithely dubs “our finest satirist” — appears in his first-ever illustrated interview. His interlocutor is Rabbi Harvey, of whom The New Republic writes: “Riding diffidently to our rescue, on pages printed in a subdued palette of sepia, mustard, sorrel, and beige, our hero appears in view, a thoroughly brilliant creation.” It’s the cartoon clergyman’s first interview as well (though he has done a few book reviews before: here and here). Read, if you dare, these 14 unusual pages and learn what happened when Harvey met Gary…Adjust your äppäräts, and enjoy!

Ezra Glinter is the critic-at-large of the Forward.

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