Overview

Was Donald Trump able to become President because God abandoned us? Are Jews white? Does Hell have better weather than Heaven? In Giveth and Taketh, Rota addresses all of these questions, discussing his own experience and political theology as a Jewish person in the Trump-era while also exploring broader issues of race, mental health and grief.

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9781916489691

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Rota has an unrivaled ability to weave the political and the personal into lyric, to loose it with piercing wit, to present each poem as a volley of arrows. Better yet the poems amalgamate to form a Golem to safeguard the most precious thing; place - yes location location location, but moreso place of self within the complexities of race, religion and family. Giveth and Taketh is trenchant, satirical, and just plain smart! -- Jay Ward, Individual World Poetry Slam Champion 2020 Rota's Giveth and Taketh is a cheeky look at what it's like to be an invisible Jew noticed only in times of convenience. When it is convenient to hate them, when it is convenient to blame them, when it is convenient to gain from them. This collection is not only chock full of cohesive political, biblical, and pop culture references, but if you look closely, you can detect self-deprecating moxie and a sly middle finger. -- Lannie Stabile, author of Little Masticated Darlings Rota possesses that seemingly mystical jewish quality of managing to make the tragic and banal beautiful and comic. He perfectly captures the perpetual state of betweenness--White or other, inside or out, safe or imperiled, faith or people--that defines American Jewishness today. --Jamie Moshin, Professor of Communications and Media/Judaic Studies, University of Michigan Rota's work is so accessible as it illustrates his own great events within the usual, everyday, even mundane. Rota's vulnerability seems to parallel our own but his conversational expression of it leans toward parable. --Billy Tuggle, author of Incantation and four-time Chicago poetry Grand Slam Champion

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