NEWSWEEK

The afterlife of George W. Bush

Just when you thought his memoirs and his Texas ranch would be taking up most of his time, it turns out former US president George Bush is making time to call teenagers in the neighbourhoood to thank them for their support. Repeatedly. He thanked a sophomore four times for selling “welcome home Laura and George” signs, writes Bill Minutaglio. Apart from the usual foray into the post-presidency speaking circuit and his work for his Presidential Library Complex in Dallas, Bush is easing back into life in Texas by reaching out to those who supported him. Six-year-olds who once tried to donate a dollar to his campaign also make the cut.

VANITY FAIR

Rise of the New Yiddishists

Move over, Roth, Bellow and Malamud. A new breed of American-Jewish writers is walking away from the angst that came with the territory and working up a renaissance in Jewish story-telling, turning the accepted rules of engagement and the narrative of assimilation on its head, writes David Sax. Thirty years ago, the American Jewish fiction of Philip Roth and Saul Bellow was all about Yiddish insults, blonde shiksas, and getting away from the past. Today’s talented crop of young Jewish writers, such as Nathan Englander, Michael Chabon, and Dara Horn, are weaving tales bound in a newfound ethnic pride that has revitalised Jewish literature in America. Even Woody Allen, it seems, is tiring of quintessentially Jewish characters.

THE NEW YORKER

The real Rhett Butler

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