The Day My Mother Cried:And Other Stories

"Kaufman's voice is original, kindhearted, and funny."---Jewish Week

"With a sharp wit, detail, and a colorful life to draw experiences from, Kaufman has written a winner that epitomizes the oddities found in Jewish life."---Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

"Kaufman, with a crisp voice, tempered charm, and good old fashioned cheek, masterfully brings to the page vivid and delightful portraits of those characters who made such rich and firm impressions on the already colorful fabric of his formative years.... A late bloomer he may be, but William Kaufman and his collection were well worth the wait."---Moment Magazine

The lasting charm of Kaufman's stories lies in a delightful mix of personal incidents and observations set against an anchoring back drop of cultural tradition. His new collection is filled with tales from his parents' homeland in the Ukraine, his own childhood reminiscences, and his adult travels.

We watch the young author forced alongside "every Jewish boy on the block" to emulate Yehudi Menuhin on a ten-dollar violin with a moldy bow until the boy isspared by an innate lack of talent and his father's judgment of his concert: "Enough is enough is more than enough." Kaufman is carefully attuned to the awkwardness of adulthood as well as to that of early adolescence. In "Interlude in Bangkok," his narrator scours the city for a synagogue while pursued by a prostitute. Later he and a friend encounter Greta Garbo in a museum cafe and are too frightened to approach her Aware of their intrigue, the mysterious movie star intones, "I am not she"; Kaufman, in his own way, says that of himself in these stories through an autobiographical narrator whose memories take on resonant, literary shapes in their retelling.

William D. Kaufman's first collection of short stories, The Day My Mother Changed Her Name, was published by Syracuse University Press in 2008. His stories have also appeared in Forward, Moment, and Columbia Magazine. Kaufman was a professional fund-raiser at the Jewish Theological Seminary until his retirement.