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A review by aleffert
The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross
3.0
This had a great premise—shtetl that's been totally isolated for a hundred years reemerges in modern day Poland. It looks at two perspectives: what happens within the village and what happens to a few people who leave.
Unfortunately, the book itself is only fine and I think wastes its potential. In plays out the premise without grabbing most of the opportunities for satire and the story of those who leave is a little more interesting (since there's a clear protagonist), but is left for long stretches and making the female lead fall into prostitution causes a struggle with tone issues (and also the one main female character becomes a prostitute? really?)
The one place it really rises to the occasion is how it deals with the holocaust, where the residents of the shtetl don't believe it—not because of the idea that someone wanted to murder us, but just, really, there are basically no Jews left in Poland? At all?
Unfortunately, the book itself is only fine and I think wastes its potential. In plays out the premise without grabbing most of the opportunities for satire and the story of those who leave is a little more interesting (since there's a clear protagonist), but is left for long stretches and making the female lead fall into prostitution causes a struggle with tone issues (and also the one main female character becomes a prostitute? really?)
The one place it really rises to the occasion is how it deals with the holocaust, where the residents of the shtetl don't believe it—not because of the idea that someone wanted to murder us, but just, really, there are basically no Jews left in Poland? At all?