Book - Shtetl

[elusivek]

Shtetl - the story of a life no more
(as told from the hereafter) (Jewish Historical Fiction)
Othniel J. Seiden
Amazon Product Link

Product Description
If you were a Jew you needed no last name ... we were all one big family ... and we all had the same tsuris, excuse me, I mean troubles...

Shtetl is the story only about what life was like in my shtetl, a small Jewish village in Eastern Europe. At one time, there were many shtetls in Eastern Europe, but they and the lives led in them are no more.

And I am the last remembered patriarch of the family in this story.

I began my physical life on earth in the year 1820. The shtetl ... the little village, in Poland, where I lived my entire life, came into existence, maybe three centuries earlier. In all that time, little changed for either of us, except maybe the misery got worse. We both, the shtetl, and I, ended our time on earth together.

So you might ask how it is, if I am no more that my story will get told?

Well, when you are here ... here in what you call the "hereafter" or "the afterlife"... but God forbid, it shouldn't happen to you 'till you're a hundred and twenty ... you'll understand it all...

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Quite an interesting book, if I must say so, though it was a bit long-winded, and I can't really see any real plot. This is just a guy telling the world about his family and friends, each chapter focusing on one person and/or the family of this person.

I first read this because I'm mighty curious about the Jews, or more specifically, their ways and practices. Perhaps it's also because of the vocabulary they use, I don't know, but I've been curious about them for quite some time.

I sort of got a glimpse of what I was looking for, but still not quite what I originally intended to find out about.

Eventually, in the latter part of the book, near the end, it starts to focus so much on one person, that eventually you'll think that, that last person is the main character, and then zip, it zooms back to the original narrator (who is the actual "main character" I believe), to remind us that no, he's not, and then again back to that last guy.

Story-wise, this reads like a collection of different stories. Prose is like the narrator talking to you throughout... as an entire book in itself, it wasn't as good as I hoped it would. However, it partially also had some of the things I was hoping to read about, so I still enjoyed this book immensely.

Comments

[notte0.livejournal.com]

I'm just generally curious - everyone seems to have something negative to say about the Jews or Jew-related customs/tradition... I don't believe EVERYTHING about Jews can be bad... i mean, I talk to some people, and they'd say things like, "They're Jews. Of course they know how to make money!" er... well, I'm sure it's not limited to Jews that know how to make money. Then Shakespeare... in Merchant of Venice, saying the Merchant was an ugly Jew (or something like that, if I recall)... and then, of course, WWII... I simply don't understand the hate, the prejudice, and anything else that makes people so... I dunno... against or fear Jews.

I mean, if it has to be all that finger-pointing I'm sure the history of Christianity can show a time when they were dirt rich, and it wasn't honest work they did that made them rich, but I'm going off tangent again.

Yeah, my point is just that I'm curious because I want to learn more about them first hand and not from "contaminated second opinions"...

ugh, I'd hate anyone try to convert me into anything... I have nothing against Mormons, whatever floats their boat, but when they come running behind me trying to get me to join their sessions, activities, whatever... just... ugh... please!