Jonathan Goldstein

Presents a collection of short stories that reimagine tales from the Bible, including "Adam and Eve," The Tower of Babel," "King David," and "My Troubles (a Work in Progress, by Joseph of N---)."

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible!

On the eve of his fortieth birthday, the author reflects upon his life, which does not include a wife, kids, car or a house, in a series of humorous stories that discuss automatic hand dryers, toy poodles and the McRib.

I'll Seize the Day Tomorrow

a novel

Lenny Bruce is dead

I’ll Seize the Day Tomorrow is the story of Jonathan Goldstein’s journey to find some great truth on his road to forty. In a series of wonderfully funny stories, the host of CBC’s WireTap recounts the highs and lows of his last year in his thirties. Throughout the year, Goldstein asks weighty questions that would stump a person less seasoned. For example: What is it about a McRib that drives people crazy? Can we replace extending an olive leaf with extending an olive jar? How much wisdom can we glean from episodes of Welcome Back, Kotter? His friends and family, many of them known through their appearances on WireTap, weigh in with hilarious results as Goldstein eats, sleeps, and watches bad TV all the way to his date with destiny.

The Jews of China: Historical and comparative perspectives

Yes, it's the greatest story ever told, but let's face it: It always could have used a little punching up. In Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!, Jonathan Goldstein brings human depth, humour, and snappier dialogue to millennia-old biblical stories. Goldstein's version of the Bible answers the questions you need to know: Wouldn't a person get bored living inside a whale? How did Joseph explain Mary's pregnancy to the guys at work? How could anyone be as dense as Samson?

Stories

Ladies and Gentlemen The Bible!

Philadelphia merchants had strong ties with their Chinese counterparts for almost a century before American Independence and for 164 years before the establishment of diplomatic relations or other official contacts. This book traces the evolution of those ties. The story begins with the establishment of the port of Philadelphia, which soon became America's largest, and ends with the first Sino-American treaty, which restructured the earlier informal relationships and signaled a decline in trade between the Delaware estuary and the China coast. In its heyday Philadelphia controlled about one-third of the United States trade with China, and the traders' profits provided substantial capital for industry and public institutions. As Hilary Conroy writes in his foreword: "The author began his research by immersing himself in the then recently opened Stephen Girard Papers. He found, somewhat to his surprise, that they did not seem to forecast the racism which was later to poison American-Chinese relations." The author concludes that Sino-American relations have never been significantly improved over those manifested in Philadelphia's old China trade.

Commercial, Cultural, and Attitudinal Effects

Philadelphia and the China Trade, 1682-1846

This startlingly original debut from This American Life contributor Jonathan Goldstein is, according to a Vice Magazine reviewer, "the cleanest dirty book I've ever read." It's a snapshot of the mind of Josh, a rather confused young man who must cope with his father's listlessness and his own overwhelming lust, not to mention the arrival of the Moschiach, inventor of the infamous Love Lotion. Lenny Bruce Is Dead walks a tightrope between the searingly funny and the poignant. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll long for some Love Lotion of your own. And you won't forget Josh–ineptitude, scatological neuroses, urban angst, self–deprecating humor and all.

A Novel

Lenny Bruce Is Dead

The Jewish communities of East and Southeast Asia display an impressive diversity. Jonathan Goldstein focuses on transnational Jewish identity in seven of this area’s largest cities: Singapore, Manila, Taipei, Harbin, Shanghai, Rangoon, and Surabaya. He emphasizes five factors which influenced the formation of Jewish transnational identity in these places: memory, colonialism, regional nationalism, socialism, and Zionism.

Jonathan Goldstein

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