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Der Gefrorene Rabbi (2012)

by Steve Stern(Favorite Author)

3.09 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Heyne

review 1: This book maintained my interest sufficiently to make me want to read all of it, BUT I would not reccommend it to anyone else. Briefly, the book follows the fate of a rabbi who becomes frozen into a block of ice somewhere in rural Poland sometime in the late 19th century. He remains frozen in this block whilst it it is transported across Europe, and then the Atlantic, to the USA. There, in the early 21st century, the refrigerator containing the ice-encased rabbi breaks down. The rabbi steps out of the freezer and rapidly adapts to life in the southern USA.Alternate chapters deal with the history of the rabbi's travels betweeen the Polish 'shetl' and the southern States. In between these chapters, there are chapters that describe the rabbi's life after he has thawed out in ... more21st century USA. A major problem with this interesting novel is its excessive length. The story would have been much more effective had it been about half or two thirds as long. As I read it, I felt as if the author was deliberately dragging out the text in order to produce a hefty volume. There was too much detail, but not enough justifuication for it.
review 2: Thoroughly bizarre novel. A rabbi is drowned, ten frozen while meditating. 100 years later he thaws and comes back to life. The story follows two arcs: the modern story of how the the world reacts to the rabbi, and the story of how the rabbi ends up in Tennessee after drowning in a shtetls somewhere in Europe. The second story is more interesting is you have any interest in the modern history of need. You get to follow the rabbi as his caretakers escape the ghettos of Europe to arrive at the ghettos of New Yorks, struggle to adapt two life in the new world, and rise to bourgeois assimilation, and take a detour to fight for Israel. The modern story is sort of surreal, but not very interesting.I learned a lot of Yiddish while reading this book. less

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