The Daily Grind
VALE, MIRIAM
The Daily Grind Random Harvest—The Novellas of Bialik Translated by David Patterson and Ezra Spicehandler Boulder. CO: Western Press, 1999. 299 pp., hardcover $28.00 REVIEWED BY MIRIAM...
...Random Harvest is also a testament to the translators, David Patterson and Ezra Spice-handler...
...Even the evil characters in these stories—often gentles or rich Jews, such as the shiksa...
...When they decide to confront Shakoripinshchika at night, they forget about the bar and get smacked in the forehead...
...His family, however, is desperately trying to elevate their social standing by imitating gentile aristocrats—and they blame Harry for their low stature...
...Miriam Vale is editorial associate at Moment...
...When I try, I sometimes abandon entire collections after disliking the first story...
...They capture the nuances of Bialik's writing, especially in their adaptations of his lengthy digressions...
...He is the biblical scapegoat, Azazel, who Aaron sent into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:8) to repent for his sins...
...However, Random Harvest, an English translation of six brilliant novellas by Hayyim Nahman Bialik written between 1898 and 1922, won my attention from start to finish...
...In "Big 1 [any," Harry Goat is an ordinary lumber dealer who relishes his daily life...
...They raise pigs or grovel for a living, yet they aren't ashamed of their daily grind...
...I find it difficult to get attached to a new cast of characters and situations every hundred pages or so...
...Bialik's characters are not one-dimensional, fairytale-like beings who easily fit into the classic images of good and evil...
...Auntie shakoripinshchika from "Behind the Fence"—are likeable...
...Bialik often uses biblical symbolism to give additional insight into his characters...
...Bialik's characters are mostly the poor of 19th-century eastern Europe and Russia, but they nevertheless have an unmistakable dignity...
...299 pp., hardcover $28.00 REVIEWED BY MIRIAM VALE It takes a good deal of self-persuasion for me to pick up a collection of novellas...
...Shakoripinshchika erects an iron pole across the width of the alley next to her house to keep out her angry k-wish neighbors...
...They are complex people living seemingly ordinary lives...
Vol. 25 • February 2000 • No. 1
