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A review by sjgrodsky
The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross
5.0
Still had 50 pages to read when I tuned into my book group last night. The others tried hard not to mention spoilers — one slipped up and did — but still a good read and a good discussion.
The book is based on a wonderfully imaginative idea — what if there was a shtetl that, like Shangri-La and Brigadoon, escaped world events (that is, World War II and the Holocaust) and continued on in its 19th century life?
That’s quite a challenge to make work, but the author mostly succeeds. He has beautifully reproduced both the attitude and cadences of the guy who used to visit Sholem Aleichem. Because, you remember, Sholem Aleichem’s stories always began with that framing device — it wasn’t an omniscient narrator who told the story, nor a character in the story. The narrator was a world-weary visitor who would greet his friend, Mr Sholem Aleichem, launch into the story, and then wish his friend goodbye.
I had a little problem with the balance of the book. I wanted more about the two really interesting characters, Pesha and Yankel, less about the intricacies of the currency conversion.
But the author gets so much pitch-perfect. Here are a few gems.
Page 169:
“It is always impressive how quickly gossip can take root and bloom; it has the wherewithal and adaptability that no crop can match.”
Page 202:
“Rabbi Sokolow wasn’t such a fool as to believe that there was something ennobling about pain and suffering. (That was a theory for the goyim.)”
The book is based on a wonderfully imaginative idea — what if there was a shtetl that, like Shangri-La and Brigadoon, escaped world events (that is, World War II and the Holocaust) and continued on in its 19th century life?
That’s quite a challenge to make work, but the author mostly succeeds. He has beautifully reproduced both the attitude and cadences of the guy who used to visit Sholem Aleichem. Because, you remember, Sholem Aleichem’s stories always began with that framing device — it wasn’t an omniscient narrator who told the story, nor a character in the story. The narrator was a world-weary visitor who would greet his friend, Mr Sholem Aleichem, launch into the story, and then wish his friend goodbye.
I had a little problem with the balance of the book. I wanted more about the two really interesting characters, Pesha and Yankel, less about the intricacies of the currency conversion.
But the author gets so much pitch-perfect. Here are a few gems.
Page 169:
“It is always impressive how quickly gossip can take root and bloom; it has the wherewithal and adaptability that no crop can match.”
Page 202:
“Rabbi Sokolow wasn’t such a fool as to believe that there was something ennobling about pain and suffering. (That was a theory for the goyim.)”