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Resumen
Resumen
Menachem-Mendl is one of Sholem Aleichem's most delightful literary creations, a dreamy optimist who travels to New York and across Eastern Europe in search of an elusive fortune at the approach of World War I. His wife, Sheyne-Sheyndl, and children are left behind in the shtetl of Kasrilevka.
Written in 1913 and previously unpublished in the United States, The Further Adventures of Menachem-Mendl consists of Menachem-Mendl's letters home and his wife's often tart replies. Working for Yiddish newspapers, Menachem-Mendl writes his opinions of world events and Jewish problems. Through the eyes of this shrewd smalltown Jew we see events leading to a cataclysmic war, which include his uncannily familiar treatment of conflicts in the Balkans. Menachem-Mendl describes the Zionist Congress in Vienna with Aleichem's inimitable humor, exaggeration, and realism. In her replies to her husband, Sheyne-Sheyndl reminds him that his family grapples with crushing poverty and persecution. Aliza Shevrin's fluid translation captures the idiomatic richness
of the original Yiddish and brings Aleichem's vanished culture to vibrant life.
Reseñas (2)
Reseña de Booklist
Anyone who loves Aleichem's Jewish shtetl idiom--the humor, exaggeration, and humanity of Tevye--will want to dip into this novel and read it aloud. Written in Yiddish in 1913 and only now translated into English, it's a sequel to The Adventures of Menachem-Mendl, which was first translated and published in the U.S. in 1969. Loosely based on Aleichem's experience, the story is told in the form of letters between Menachem-Mendl (who now has a job as a writer on a Warsaw newspaper) and his wife, Sheyne-Sheyndl, left behind with the children in a Kasrilevka village, where she faces crushing poverty and persecution. He's the classic luftmensch, an airy idealist with harebrained schemes for solving the world's problems. Her down-to-earth, hilarious answers are the best part of the book. In fact, many readers may skip most of his dreamy ruminations and focus on her sharp, furious, loving replies, whether she's cursing her village enemies ("May ten boils disgrace her face, the blabbermouth") or quoting the rabbi's wise lesson: "You mustn't eat on an empty stomach." --Hazel Rochman
Library Journal Review
The original Menachem-Mendl, an epistolary novel translated into English in 1969, tells of the adventures of a Jewish everyman, the product of 2000 years of struggle and survival. His schemes, machinations, and hare-brained attempts to overcome the crushing poverty of the time are detailed in letters to his decidedly less optimistic wife, Sheyne-Sheyndl, in Kasrilivka (Aleichem's name for any poor Jewish town in Eastern Europe before World War I). The first volume of his adventures ends when, after much failure, Menachem-Mendl departs for America and a new life. The current epistolary volume, newly translated with great skill, finds Menachem-Mendl in Warsaw after a disastrous stay in America. He has a new job on a Warsaw newspaper, writing of the politics, opinions, and people of the time. His letters to his wife are published in the newspaper, but her sharp-tongued responses (which appear in the book) are not. This delightful romp through the rich Jewish life of Warsaw of the early 20th century also follows the intrigues of a wandering husband. Aleichem, whose characters are household names to generations of readers of Yiddish and world literature, is a consummate storyteller. Highly recommended. Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.