Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: Jacob the Liar Author: Jurek Becker ISBN: 0-15-145975-4 Publisher: Helen and Kurt Wolff Book Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Type of book: Holocaust, 1944, ghetto, humor, radio, anti-Jewish rules, Poland, hope Year it was published: 1969 (version I have 1975) Summary: In a feat of sheer storytelling reminiscent of Sholem Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jurek Becker writes of a Jewish community's tragic fate gently and humorously. Set in a Polish ghetto near the close of World War II, the novel centers on the artless and unheroic figure of Jacob Heym, former proprietor of a modest cafe, who accidentally overhears a German news report of Soviet army advances. When Jacob relays the news,word spread throughout the ghetto with the added rumor that Jacob possesses a contraband radio. To his dismay, he finds himself a hero. Challenged to authenticate the real news, Jacob extemporizes: son, he who heretofore has invented ntohing more daring than a potato pan...

Name of book: The Promise Author Name: Chaim Potok ISBN: 0-449-20910-5 Publisher: Fawcett  Type of book: Young adult-Adult, historical, post world war 2, 1940s-1950s, Jewish Year it was published: 1969 Part of a Series: No name, sequel to The Chosen Summary: For young Reuven Malter, it is a time of testing. With his teachers, he struggles for recognition of his boldly radical methods of scholarship. With his old friend Danny Saunders-who himself had abandoned his legacy as the chosen heir to his father’s rabbinical dynasty for the uncertain life of a healer-he battles to save a sensisitive boy imprisoned by his genius and rage, defeated by the same forces of an unyielding past that challenge Reuven. Painfully, and, at last, triumphantly, Reuven grows into a guardian of the ancient, sacred promise to his people, while earning his hard-fought right to make his own beginning. Characters: The characters tended to be three dimensional and ...