Note: Originally, "The Brothers Schlemiel From Birth to Bar Mitzvah" was conceived as a tool to sell email subscriptions to the serialized novel, "The Brothers Schlemiel." The CD cost $24.95, and included a subscription. Light Publications has released a remastered, corrected, version of "The Brothers Schlemiel From Birth to Bar Mitzvah" at a considerably lower price of $9.95 on cassette and $14.95 on CD.

Audio Books, Providence Sunday Journal, 11/19/00
by Alan Rosenberg

The Brothers Schlemiel, a novel of Chelm: Part One, From Birth to Bar Mitzvah (more or less), by Mark Binder, read by Binder. Four complete stories, 1 hour, CD only. Light Publications

The people of the Eastern European village of Chelm are fools -- but such wise fools that their exploits have been the subject of Jewish folktales for generations.

Providence author Mark Binder takes the Chelm tales and gives them a spin, focusing on the adventures of identical twins Abraham and Adam Schlemiel.

"Schlemiel" is Yiddish slang for a habitual bungler, but things seem to work out well for the boys in these stories of their first 13 years, infused with a gentle humor aided by Binder's nicely understated storytelling style. There's some discussion of violence when the twins encounter a trio of murderous robbers, but these tales are otherwise entirely suitable for -- and commendable to -- all audiences.

The Brothers Schlemiel is meant to be a 100-part epic, which Binder launched as an e-mail serialization in February. My main quibble with the audio version is that it's so short -- just 4 of the first 11 episodes that make up Part One. A bit of sloppy editing omits a key moment in the tale of the boys and the thieves, and the price is about double what you would expect to pay for an hour-long tape.

However, the CD also doubles as a CD-ROM, which includes a printable text of all of the first 11 chapters, plus a free subscription to the weekly e-mail serialization and three bonus Chelm stories. That goes a long way to make up for not hearing more of the stories in Binder's own voice.

To get the CD, send $9.95 for the cassette or $14.95 for the CD to Light Publications, P.O. Box 2462, Providence 02906; or click here to order online