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Eric Romsted
, December 16, 2008
(view all comments by Eric Romsted)
Strange Ways is the first English translation of a short novel originally written in Yiddish, published in Poland in 1925. It was unusual in its day as a Yiddish novel written by woman.
Faygenberg tells the story of several families in a Jewish shtetl in turn of the Twentieth century Lithuania and their reactions to the coming of modern times embodied by a new local railway station. In Part I of the novel I was constantly reminded of Fiddler on the Roof as the plot centers around a father trying to find suitable matches for his daughters. The focus here is on the elder generation and the description has something of the feel of traditional storytelling.
Part II offers a significant break. The new railroad is in full operation, the focus shifts from the parents to the children and even the writing felt more stylistically modern. The story centers on the love affair between the two main characters of the younger generation, Sheyndel and Borukh. Faygenberg seems rather pessimistic about the benefits of modernity for women. The old ways, as represented by Sheyndel's parents are hardly idyllic, but neither is Sheyndel and Borukh's relationship close to one of equality.
Toward the end, Sheyndel does devise perhaps the most creative response I've ever seen to the problem of being kept as a mistress by a man who never fulfills his endless promises to leave his wife. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, the author hurries us into her rather bluntly tragic conclusion.
I enjoyed the style of Strange Ways and the image the author created of life in a Jewish shtetl on the brink of modernity, but in the end the book was simply too short to fully develop all of the interesting ideas that it introduced. Still, it was certainly worth the read.
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