Everyday Jews
Scenes from a Vanished Life
Published on 16. November 2007
Book
Hardback
384 pages
978-0-300-11637-3 (ISBN)
Description
When Everyday Jews was first published in Poland in 1935, the Jewish Left was scandalized by the sex scenes, and I. B. Singer complained that the novel was too bleak to be psychologically credible. Yet within two years Perle's novel was heralded as a modern Yiddish masterpiece. Offering a unique blend of raw sexuality and romantic love, thwarted desire and spiritual longing, Everyday Jews is now considered Perle's consummate achievement.
The voice of Mendl, the novel's 12-year-old narrator, is precisely captured by this artfully simple translation. Mendl's impoverished and dysfunctional family struggles to survive in a nameless Polish provincial town. In his unsettled world, most ordinary people yearn to be somewhere else-or someone else. As Mendl journeys to adulthood, Perle captures the complex interplay of Christians and Jews, weekdays and Sabbaths, town and country, dream and reality, against a relentless and never-ending battle of the sexes.
The voice of Mendl, the novel's 12-year-old narrator, is precisely captured by this artfully simple translation. Mendl's impoverished and dysfunctional family struggles to survive in a nameless Polish provincial town. In his unsettled world, most ordinary people yearn to be somewhere else-or someone else. As Mendl journeys to adulthood, Perle captures the complex interplay of Christians and Jews, weekdays and Sabbaths, town and country, dream and reality, against a relentless and never-ending battle of the sexes.
Reviews / Votes
"Perle's highly regarded Yiddish novel reads with freshness and vitality. It is an important historical document as well as a fine work of art."--Joseph Sherman, Oxford University -- Joseph Sherman "I was enthralled by Perle's Everyday Jews. It shows the tension between Eros and Thanatos in a Polish town in a way that combines the phantasmagorical work of Bruno Schulz with the ethnological reportage of S. Ansky. An extraordinarily document, written in a vivid style, the blunt, animated reaction it awakened is not unlike the prudishness that greeted D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love when it first came out. And to think that even Isaac Bashevis Singer blushed."-Ilan Stavans -- Ilan Stavans "Widely regarded as one of the classics of modern Yiddish literature, this novel merits serious attention. . . . The learned and profound introduction by D. Roskies gives the reader the background to the author and the novel so that it can be understood in context."--Religious Studies Review * Religious Studies Review * Winner of the fifth Fenia and Yaakov Leviant Memorial Prize in Yiddish Studies for an outstanding translation of a Yiddish literary work, given by the Modern Language Association of America -- Modern Language Association of America * Fenia and Yaakov Leviant Memorial Prize in Yiddish Studies *
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
567 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-11637-3 (9780300116373)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Yehoshue Perle (1888-1943) was one of Poland's most popular, controversial, and prolific Yiddish novelists of the interwar-and wartime-period. In his introduction to the novel, David G. Roskies, Sol & Evelyn Henkind Professor of Yiddish Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary, opens up Perle's tragic life and undiscovered oeuvre to a new generation of readers.