The Education of Hyman Kaplan

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Shoshana, May 2, 2010 (view all comments by Shoshana)
This lengthier review supplements my other comment. I have had H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N on my mind for several weeks as I read books that evoke him. Hyman, an immigrant, takes beginner's night English classes and speaks like your immigrant forebearers did if they were Ashkenazi Jews in New York or New Jersey before 1950. Hyman is an earnest yet immovable object. Reading this as a child, I saw him as the bane of his teacher's existence. Reading it now, having taught or worked in educational settings for most of the intervening years, I took in that Hyman's teacher, Mr. Parkhill, understands that Hyman is both a burden and a genius. This, I think, is something that differentiates this episodic comedy from others that rely exclusively on the trope of the dumb greenhorn's hilarious mispronunciation and mangled grammar. Hyman's misunderstandings provide a fresh vision of English, revealing hitherto unseen facets of the language and forging new connections. For me, the shining and ineffable utterance, the pinnacle of Jewish philosophy's efflorescence, is Hyman's assertion, "Mine oncle has a gless eye." You'll have to read the story to see why this simple (and untrue) statement is such a hilarious emblem of Talmudic reasoning paired with the Jewish stubbornness necessary to survive in world that seeks to quash the Jewish spirit.

I read The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N at my grandparents', at about the same time as I read Roth's Portnoy's Complaint and Idries Shah's Mulla Nasrudin tales. This is a useful trio, of which Ross/Rosten is the fulcrum. Hyman brings Yiddishkeit to the New World, not just through his language, but in his attitude, world view, and exuberance. His is the optimism of the Jew in the promised land. While he bears the burdens of tsars and World War I, his is not the generation of Hitler's particular horrors. Portnoy holds the angst of post-Holocaust American Jewry, which must wrestle with how much to accept and how much to reject the pessimism of such active anti-Semitism. Portnoy would find Kaplan naive, but see this as contemptible, whereas the Mullah Nasrudin might find Kaplan companionable, another blessed fool whose nonsense makes reasonable sense, if one is willing to really hear it.

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Shoshana, December 19, 2009 (view all comments by Shoshana)
I read this as a child and can still quote long portions. Still hilarious, both for a glimpse at a particular era in Jewish migration and for anyone who teachers English as a Second Language.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780156278119

Author:

Ross, Leonard

Author:

Rosten, Leo Calvin

Author:

Ross, Leonard

Author:

Ross, Leonard Q.

Publisher:

Mariner Books

Location:

New York :

Subject:

General

Subject:

Fiction

Subject:

American wit and humor

Subject:

American

Subject:

Humorous

Subject:

Immigrants

Subject:

Immigrants -- United States.

Subject:

Humor : General

Copyright:

1968

Edition Description:

Trade Paper

Series Volume:

no. 1

Publication Date:

19680331

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Illustrations:

Yes

Pages:

156

Dimensions:

8 x 5.31 in 0.33 lb