Mikhail Iossel

Grateful to be included on Steven Beattie's That Shakespearean Rag's list of the best books of the year, alongside the likes of the 2025 Booker Prize winner David Szalay, Joyce Carol Oates and, um, the talented up-and-comer F. Scott Fitzgerald. shakespeareanrag.com/sixteen-books-…

@SimyBenarroch @maximonti55 @albertista69 So delete. That’s the only decent thing to do.

@maximonti55 @albertista69 Me están comentando q es un texto falsamente atribuido a Woody Allen. Lo siento

Woody Allen sobre el antisemitismo hoy 1/2 Woody: «Saben, siempre pensé que la mayor ventaja de Nueva York era que uno podía ser neurótico y nadie lo notaba. En otras ciudades te mandan al médico si hablas contigo mismo. En Manhattan te ofrecen una columna en una revista por ello. Ayer salí a comprar salmón. Por cierto, es la única tradición judía estable que ha sobrevivido a Babilonia, Roma y a mis relaciones con mujeres. Caminaba por Brooklyn pensando en la muerte. No porque sea filósofo. Sino porque ya tengo más de noventa, aunque originalmente había planeado llegar como mucho hasta los setenta. Y de repente —una multitud frente a una sinagoga. Al principio pensé que allí actuaba un famoso psicoanalista. En Nueva York la gente hace cola durante horas para escuchar por qué su madre tiene la culpa de todo. Aunque los judíos eso ya lo saben sin necesidad de conferencia. Pero no. Estaban gritando algo sobre “intifada”. ¿Y saben qué me sorprendió más? La cantidad de energía que tiene esa gente. ¿De dónde la sacan? Yo después de subir dos tramos de escaleras ya empiezo a escribir mi testamento. Y ellos listos para una revolución sin haberse tomado ni un café decente. Un tipo gritaba algo sobre “descolonización”. Dios mío. Cuando yo era joven, “colonización” significaba que la tía Frieda ocupaba nuestro sofá durante tres meses y se negaba a irse. Hoy de repente es una conspiración sionista. En general, el antisemitismo moderno se ha vuelto demasiado intelectual. Antes simplemente nos odiaban. Sin rodeos. Hoy no. Hoy alguien con bufanda, que parece que escribe poemas sobre su propia barba, te explica con ayuda de Heidegger y Nietzsche por qué la existencia de los judíos es una forma de agresión y una amenaza para la humanidad. Y yo estaba allí pensando: antes al menos nos pegaban personas sin título universitario. Hoy los organizadores de pogromos tienen diploma de Columbia University. Luego una chica a mi lado dijo: “Estamos contra el sionismo, no contra los judíos”. Eso es como si mi exmujer hubiera dicho: “No tengo nada contra ti. Solo estoy contra todo lo que dices, haces, sientes —y especialmente contra acostarme contigo”. El significado es el mismo. Y entonces alguien gritó: “¡Los sionistas son nazis!”. En ese momento sentí que mi abuela se habría girado en su tumba tan rápido que podría haber abastecido de electricidad parte de Queens. Mi abuela, por cierto, vivió a auténticos nazis. Se escondió en un sótano en Polonia con un hombre que tosía tan fuerte que los alemanes podrían haberlos encontrado solo por el sonido bronquial. Y ahora un chico de una universidad de élite, cuyo mayor trauma en la vida es un café frío de Starbucks, me explica qué significa fascismo. Realmente vivo en tiempos sorprendentes. Hoy la gente habla como si se hubiera tragado accidentalmente una biblioteca universitaria. Nadie dice ya: “Perdón, soy un idiota”. No. Hoy se dice: “Estoy deconstruyendo el relato dominante”. Escuchen, yo crecí entre judíos. Nosotros no deconstruimos relatos. Nosotros creamos relatos. Llegué a casa y encendí la televisión —porque cuando uno tiene ansiedad, la televisión parece una idea excelente. Es como tratar el alcoholismo con un martini con hielo. Allí Roger Waters volvía a explicar el mundo. Los músicos de rock siempre me dan miedo cuando envejecen y empiezan a hablar como paranoicos que ven conspiraciones al mirar un gato negro. Luego apareció Kanye West. En mi infancia, los locos al menos parecían locos. Pelo despeinado, abrigo, palomas, conversaciones con cubos de basura. Este tipo simplemente se pone una máscara negra y dice que ama a Hitler. Y ahí entendí: la humanidad ha avanzado mucho —de “nunca más” a “discutamos los matices”. ¿Y los políticos? Los políticos dicen: “La situación es complicada”. No. Complicado es explicar a una madre judía por qué su hijo de cuarenta años aún no está casado.

@beauti_animals montreal

Are you a genius?, Then guess this place without googling. a) Switzerland 🇨🇭 b) Chile 🇨🇱 c) Canada 🇨🇦 d) Australia 🇦🇺

@MorrisACollins Cool. Congratulations! Going to get it today.

It's pub day for my new novel, The Tavern at the End of History. When writing I imagined it like The Magic Mountain­, but shorter & with Jews. (& also angels, a dybbuk, & stolen art). Looking forward to sharing it with you all!

What I've been reading this week: The Sentence by @Mikhail_Iossel and Daydreamers by @alvinlu. Both wonderful so far... @fc

A brilliant, ingenious comedic book of stories How to write a stories when you don’t have enough words? How to finish a sentence something’s are never finished? @Mikhail_Iossel Sentence

@bobblack1 @beyondzeropod Thank you! Yes, Gilli is a colleague (and former grad student). There are worse places than Montreal in the world.

@Mikhail_Iossel JUST ORDERED.... excited to read ive been reading Gillian Sze poems all week (new discovery) and now thankss to @beyondzeropod ive found my way to Sentence i think my wife and i should move to montreal where i have lotss of friends looking forward to reading your bookm Misha

"Whatever these stories are doing, it works." reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2025/…

Happy almost new year ! Here is part 7 of the End of Year Show ! I speak to @maxdaniellawton Francesco Pacifico, @Mikhail_Iossel and I give you my best books of 2025 and some of the books I am looking forward to in 2026 open.spotify.com/episode/5xauNI…

Not to toot my own horn (while, of course, still partially tooting it), but it's not an everyday occurrence that a great American literary critic - Sven Birkerts, in Tupelo Quarterly - likens your writing to the work of 2 Nobel Prize winners at once in 1 sentence... or Sentence.

@Kulambq Maybe just try reading something, anything by Krasznahorkai? He's the least politically correct writer you can possibly imagine. His work is not even in that realm of discussion. A remarkable writer of astounding sentences.

I’ve lost all faith in the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is meaningless. I’ve long hoped Pynchon would win it, but that hardly matters anymore. The prize has been hijacked by political correctness, and perhaps being excluded from that list is, in the end, a greater honor.

@HeerJeet @nogogoldontburn @jbarnyla It may be a smart idea to become a little less strident and a bit more thoughtful and knowledgeable.

@nogogoldontburn @jbarnyla Exactly. No one who knows the facts accepts Clinton's self-serving account.

I would ask liberal Zionists to reflect on what it means to say "there will be no Palestinian state" -- and the fact that this is position not just of Netanyahu but broader Israeli political elite.

@HeerJeet @nogogoldontburn @jbarnyla x.com/DannyAyalon/st…

Over the weekend, my sister prepared some beef, not sure what cut it was, but it was so tasty, I took a chunky bite off the bone, and the fatty bits, along with the red bits, along with the spices gave me some serious head rush. Never before has beef tasted that good. When reading the opening chapter of Prof. Mikhail Iossel new book, Sentence, I felt the same sensation as when I tasted my sister's beef, only now, in the literary sense. The chapter is 25 pages long, with no full-stop, but the level of engagement will not let you go, you will cling to every word, every line, savouring the humour, especially from the the soliloquy (the whole chapter can pass for a very good play, given the eclectic mix of characters at play, and Prof, is cheeky with his "stage directions"). The chapter is at once reflective(it is never easy departing your country, for good), poignant (as Prof discusses mortality at a metaphoric and literal level seeing as he is traveling with a passenger who has cancer, and who disappears from the train in between the prof's drunken nap, having asked help to end his life). In between the Prof's self-deprecating humour, the rich prose, and the engaging style, you would forgive me for comparing his writing to the tasty beef my beloved sister made for me. Prof is a master and this is the book you write to show readers what you are made of, and remind them that there is no end for experimentation and memoirs need not be so turgid or predictable. In football parlance, if you know Prof, the book was as inevitable as Ronaldo's two goals that won the World Cup in 2002. As inevitable as Messi doing it for Argentina in 2022. Prof is like that panenka penalty from any of the Italian masters. For George Ogutu John Mwazemba and Eric Rugara Miyamoto-Muswahili, here is a book to savour and revel in, for a difference. Full review next week once I get through the book over the weekend.

Grateful to Tony Mochama

@teririch @amazon outrageous.

What gives @amazon #Canada How are you allowing Canada's flag to be bastardized with a terrorist flag? This is NOT okay.

@BoringBattlecry @MelissaLMRogers If u started by posting this, instead of a paean to life in Texas (where lots of people, esp. "hispanics," with whom you get along so well, have no health insurance; and where said "hispanics" just get snatched off streets without being "illegals"), there'd be no objections.

So TEXAS has 10 million less people than all of Canada yet a higher GDP Rank 🤯 and higher GDP per capita Canada should be in a way better place, voting has REAL consequences 😒

@BoringBattlecry @MelissaLMRogers You tried to convince your audience - and yourself, it feels like - that life is all about your wallet and nothing else matters. You sounded almost like a paid propagandist for T’s America, being a Canadian. I found that pathetic, and I don’t care whether you take me seriously.

You know, if you start by insulting someone from the getgo, it does make it hard to take you seriously. But if you're that reactive to people who don't think like you, you're just as indoctrinated as the old Soviet people who still pine for Stalin. Canada is unrecognizeable from the place I knew back in the 80s and 90s. And that's what I find sad and partly why I left. Anyhow - feel free to retort with another insult, seems that likes all you're good at.

@BoringBattlecry @MelissaLMRogers I didn’t say it was nice to meet you in cyberspace. People like you just make me sad.

@Mikhail_Iossel @MelissaLMRogers Мне тоже приятно познакомиться. Не беспокойтесь обо мне, со мной все будет хорошо.

@BoringBattlecry @MelissaLMRogers Like I said, pathetic. And unlike you, I was born and spent the first 30 years of my life under a totalitarian regime. Which I escaped. I am a US citizen living in Canada. Enjoy life under trump Ian authoritarianism.

@Mikhail_Iossel @MelissaLMRogers LOL - fair enough. You can slink back to your commie manufacturing university (Concordia). Glad I never studied there. Concordia and UQAM, the shittiest universities in Quebec.