Saturday, November 8 | 7:00 pm
In his memoir, My Childhood in Pieces: A Stand-Up Comedy, a Skokie Elegy, acclaimed poet and scholar Edward Hirsch presents his early life in Chicago in “microchapters.” The form — quick, deadpan — embodies the Jewish culture that Hirsch was raised in: each chapter is devoid of sentiment yet concentrated with life. Perhaps the microchapter that best serves as an ars poetica is “Conversation with My Mother”: “My mother was heating a can of chicken soup on the stove. ‘You really shouldn’t make fun of me,’ I said, ‘you’re my mother.’ She barely turned her head. ‘Don’t be so sure, kid.’” Like the mother, the microchapters don’t acknowledge pain, nor provide comfort. They instead teach a different kind of survival practiced by many midcentury Jewish descendants of Holocaust survivors: just try to keep up.
Ticket: $25