Yekl and the Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories
Abraham Cahan
This is a wonderful and vibrant collection of stories of Yiddish New York at the turn of the century, as Jewish immigrants were flooding the Lower East Side and striving to make the best of both of their worlds. Cahan's work reflects this struggle at every turn and in many respects, with positive and negative results, which make the collection coherent in setting and general theme but widely variant (and therefore always interesting) at the same time. In short, it is what I'd expect a coherent collection to look like.
The stories themselves are mostly driven by context. The characters are not quite stock characters, but I don't feel as if they are ever the main focus of the story; its as if the characters in any story could be found in any other. What is strange is that this doesn't detract from the reading; though they are easily defined and pigeonholed, Cahan's characters are not flat, and are instead brilliant portraits of the range of Jewish immigrants to New York in the period. We have the secular Russians, the Americanized Jew, the Orthodox Talmud scholar, the freshly minted wife, sweatshop workers galore, and even intellectuals. The stern Jewish father makes his due appearance, but each of these characters is used in their proper context and brings his or her story to life.
These tales are mostly driven by context, after all, by the circumstances these immigrants find themselves in. Cahan is fascinated by the question of the translation of culture across the Atlantic- is it indeed possible for European Jews to get along in the New World, and how can they do it? This question is the central question in all of these stories, and we fittingly find the characters adapting to a situation as foreign to them as it is to us. New York and its people come alive, and Cahan never misses the opportunity to throw in a bit of minced English (which you have to pronounce in your head to understand, but which adds remarkable flavor). Background characters are never overbearing but always blend in seamlessly with their surroundings to create a living world for the reader.
This collection can be a read as an intimate portrait of Jewish life in the New York ghetto at the time when it was most distinct and when its conflicts with Old Europe were being most deeply felt and experienced on a day-to-day basis. Cahan brilliantly draws the reader into a foreign world and makes sense of the immigrant struggle by drawing on familiar themes and stories that apply to a broader demographic than simply American Jews. His stories are flavored with culture and religion but manage to transcend into general consciousness about the immigrant experience as gritty New York comes quite alive.
Grade: A
Abraham Cahan
This is a wonderful and vibrant collection of stories of Yiddish New York at the turn of the century, as Jewish immigrants were flooding the Lower East Side and striving to make the best of both of their worlds. Cahan's work reflects this struggle at every turn and in many respects, with positive and negative results, which make the collection coherent in setting and general theme but widely variant (and therefore always interesting) at the same time. In short, it is what I'd expect a coherent collection to look like.
The stories themselves are mostly driven by context. The characters are not quite stock characters, but I don't feel as if they are ever the main focus of the story; its as if the characters in any story could be found in any other. What is strange is that this doesn't detract from the reading; though they are easily defined and pigeonholed, Cahan's characters are not flat, and are instead brilliant portraits of the range of Jewish immigrants to New York in the period. We have the secular Russians, the Americanized Jew, the Orthodox Talmud scholar, the freshly minted wife, sweatshop workers galore, and even intellectuals. The stern Jewish father makes his due appearance, but each of these characters is used in their proper context and brings his or her story to life.
These tales are mostly driven by context, after all, by the circumstances these immigrants find themselves in. Cahan is fascinated by the question of the translation of culture across the Atlantic- is it indeed possible for European Jews to get along in the New World, and how can they do it? This question is the central question in all of these stories, and we fittingly find the characters adapting to a situation as foreign to them as it is to us. New York and its people come alive, and Cahan never misses the opportunity to throw in a bit of minced English (which you have to pronounce in your head to understand, but which adds remarkable flavor). Background characters are never overbearing but always blend in seamlessly with their surroundings to create a living world for the reader.
This collection can be a read as an intimate portrait of Jewish life in the New York ghetto at the time when it was most distinct and when its conflicts with Old Europe were being most deeply felt and experienced on a day-to-day basis. Cahan brilliantly draws the reader into a foreign world and makes sense of the immigrant struggle by drawing on familiar themes and stories that apply to a broader demographic than simply American Jews. His stories are flavored with culture and religion but manage to transcend into general consciousness about the immigrant experience as gritty New York comes quite alive.
Grade: A
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