Nathan Englander's Short Story Collection "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank"

"It is hard to know what a person would and wouldn't do in any specific instance."  If there's one apex to absorb from Englander's wickedly funny & piercingly painful stories it's the precarious balance of humanity amongst inhumanity.   The first short story from which Englander's Pulitzer Prize nominated "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" derives its title is a hilarious comparison between 2 Jewish couples.  An American couple with one son and ex-pats now living in Israel who have become ultra-orthodox & have 10 daughters.  While both couples get high from the son's pot they discuss a "Righteous Gentile Game" a.k.a. "The Anne Frank Game." But it is vehemently denied as a game but a pathological mindset to prepare for an American Holocaust.  One considers who could be entrusted with hiding them to save their lives while putting their own at risk.  The following stories in this thought provoking all harken to survival.  Survival is what matters most just to be able to start again.  "Camp Sundown" is about a Berkshires camp for elderly Jews and young Jewish toddlers.  The camp director is besotted with craziness from the older campers.  Some  are survivors whose amusingly annoying antics take a very dark & disturbing turn.  The message  resonates amongst the shadows in a blazing testament to no innocent bystanders. "To stand by for murder is murder.  The turning away from the head is the same as turning the knife."  Englander (b Amer 1970) handles topics hard to address.  His stories speak of Israeli wars and Israel as both the defender & the oppressor.  Jews against Palestinians & Arabs and dissension and destruction within the Jewish culture through assimilation. "You want truth and justice for everything and for everything to fit in its place. But somethings are in between."   Englander's incisive stories are told with wit, wisdom, humor and sorrow.  "The palest shadows of kindness were enough to deep a dead man alive."  This resounding collection of stories should be talked about when what's talked about is literary writing at its finest along with meaningful theological & philosophical discussions.