cover image A Vase for a Flower: Tales of an Antique Dealer

A Vase for a Flower: Tales of an Antique Dealer

Denny Pinkus. St. Martin's Press, $16.95 (217pp) ISBN 978-0-312-04258-5

These 50 warmhearted tales spring from the experiences of Pinkus, an antiques dealer in Tel Aviv. The humor and pathos of life , the manipulations of buyers and sellers in the amorphous antiques trade, and the celebrations of life in ancient Israeli rites provide the springboard for Pinkus's fertile imagination and gentle wit in shaping these entertaining vignettes. Fantasy and fact meet--the old woman whose valuable Roggieri violin has to be reunited with its case; the author's life with grandparents in La Paz, Bolivia, where he grew up after leaving Germany in 1939. The stories, rooted in Jewish life /I agree, but I was defeated in finding other ways to say life, life, life; so the hell with it, and leave as is.gs , preserve old-world charm and folk wisdom in their contemporary telling. (June)