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(More customer reviews)A truly great day to have this collection of the great Yiddish writer, Lamed Shapiro. Powerful, precise, spare magical realism stories/fables of the shtetl within and in the Old World that stand easily alongside Singer, Asch, Der Nister, etc, and the Latin American Magical Realists.
This is not all the Lamed Shapiro stories, but a solid chunk. Leah Garret has done an excellent job, a very detailed forward describing Lamed's life and writing. Stories are divided into three sections: Progrom Tales, The Old World, and The New World.
Pogrom Tales:
The Cross
Pour Out Thy Wrath
In the Dead Town
The Kiss
White Challah
The Jewish Regime
The Old World:
Smoke
Tiger
Eating Days
The Rebbe and the Rebbetsin
The Man and His Servant
Between the Fields
Myrtle
The New World:
At Sea
The Chair
New Yorkish
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Cross and Other Jewish Stories (New Yiddish Library Series)
Lamed Shapiro (1878-1948) was the author of groundbreaking and controversial short stories, novellas, and essays. Himself a tragic figure, Shapiro led a life marked by frequent ocean crossings, alcoholism, and failed ventures, yet his writings are models of precision, psychological insight, and daring.Shapiro focuses intently on the nature of violence: the mob violence of pogroms committed against Jews; the traumatic aftereffects of rape, murder, and powerlessness; the murderous event that transforms the innocent child into witness andthe rabbi's son intoagitator. Within a society on the move, Shapiro's refugees from the shtetl and the traditional way of life are in desperate search of food, shelter, love, and things of beauty.Remarkably, and against all odds, they sometimes find what they are looking for. More often than not, the climax of their lives is an experience of ineffable terror.This collection also reveals Lamed Shapiro as an American master. His writings depict the Old World struggling with the New, extremes of human behavior combined with the pursuit of normal happiness. Through the perceptions of a remarkable gallery of men, women, children—of evenanimals and plants—Shapiro successfully reclaimed the lost world of the shtetl as he negotiated East Broadway and the Bronx, Union Square, and vaudeville.Both in his life and in his unforgettable writings, Lamed Shapiro personifies the struggle of a modern Jewish artist in search of an always elusive home.
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