Synopses & Reviews
In 1934, with World War II on the horizon, writer Jacob Glatstein (1896-1971) traveled from his home in America to his native Poland to visit his dying mother. One of the foremost Yiddish poets of the day, he used his journey as the basis for two highly autobiographical novellas (translated as
The Glatstein Chronicles) in which he intertwines childhood memories with observations of growing anti-Semitism in Europe.
Glatsteins accounts “stretch like a tightrope across a chasm,” writes preeminent Yiddish scholar Ruth Wisse in the Introduction. In Book One, “Homeward Bound,” the narrator, Yash, recounts his voyage to his birthplace in Poland and the array of international travelers he meets along the way. Book Two, “Homecoming at Twilight,” resumes after his mothers funeral and ends with Yashs impending return to the United States, a Jew with an American passport who recognizes the ominous history he is traversing.
The Glatstein Chronicles is at once insightful reportage of the year after Hitler came to power, reflection by a leading intellectual on contemporary culture and events, and the closest thing we have to a memoir by the boy from Lublin, Poland, who became one of the finest poets of the twentieth century.
Review
"The appearance of The Glatstein Chronicles is truly a landmark happening in the field of Yiddish literature, offering what has long been recognized as a modernist masterpiece, a worthy translation at last, . . . [and] a momentous and deeply significant publication in the scholarly world."—Rachel Rubinstein, Forward
Review
"Wisse once again demonstrates why she is the leading Yiddish literary in the world. . . . This volume is another elegant contribution to a series distinguished by outstanding scholarship that is accessible to every reader."—S. Gittleman, CHOICE
Review
"These are not works with conventional narratives; rather, they are exquisite poetic illuminations of Ashkenazic Jewry the moment before it was destroyed. . . . Highly recommended for all collections of Yiddish in translation."—Beth Dwoskin, Association of Jewish Libraries
Synopsis
This seminal American work from the Yiddish literary canon, in a restored English edition, offers the luminous narrative of the author's journey home to his Polish birthplace
In 1934, with World War II on the horizon, writer Jacob Glatstein (1896-1971) traveled from his home in America to his native Poland to visit his dying mother. One of the foremost Yiddish poets of the day, he used his journey as the basis for two highly autobiographical novellas (translated as The Glatstein Chronicles) in which he intertwines childhood memories with observations of growing anti-Semitism in Europe.
Glatstein's accounts "stretch like a tightrope across a chasm," writes preeminent Yiddish scholar Ruth Wisse in the Introduction. In Book One, "Homeward Bound," the narrator, Yash, recounts his voyage to his birthplace in Poland and the array of international travelers he meets along the way. Book Two, "Homecoming at Twilight," resumes after his mother's funeral and ends with Yash's impending return to the United States, a Jew with an American passport who recognizes the ominous history he is traversing.
The Glatstein Chronicles is at once insightful reportage of the year after Hitler came to power, reflection by a leading intellectual on contemporary culture and events, and the closest thing we have to a memoir by the boy from Lublin, Poland, who became one of the finest poets of the twentieth century.