Customer Reviews

The Entertainer and the Dybbuk

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This story is so well written that my 8-year-old son didn't want me to put the book down until all the facts and details were known. Sid Fleischman keeps you invested in finding out more about the plight and connection between an American ventriloquist and the spirit of a young Jewish boy. This is an astonishing story about differences and justice. A must read for young and old.

This book is about a normal ventriloquist...not! He meets a Jewish demon called a Dybbuk. It helps him greatly with his act but it almost ruins his personal life. The Dybbuk was murdered in World War 2 by a general who is running lose in the world. Will they catch up with the general and convicted him on the crimes he committed?

This book combines an American, a young Jewish teen, objective, unsentimental descriptions of what happened to children in WWII, a dose of modern Jewish slang, and an education about Jewish customs and culture all wrapped in a funny easy-to-read story. After reading over a dozen books on the Holocaust, I chose this one to teach to seventh graders. They loved the book and couldn't wait to continue reading. There were several lessons that I could construct from the book relevant to current youth including the practice of "passing" as someone you are not (racially or otherwise) to avoid ridicule or discrimination. The book is far more than a children's book on the Holocaust. It is an excellent, fun read and Sid Fleishman is to be applauded for his contribution to American literature.

A cousin to the Golem, the true story of the Dybbuk runs deep into the tragedy that all too often was Jewish history.

In myth, a dybbuk was the soul a deceased who's returned to the body of another so that he may fulfill his unfinished life business. Interestingly enough, the Patrick Swayze movie ghost should actually have been entitled Dybbuk because of its adherence to the tradition Dybbuk formula: guy has unfinished business, guy dies before he can complete it, guy inhabits the body of another to complete it, he completes it and finally is gone.

Because of its concern with death and unfinished business, the Dybbuk story was an all too common tale for Jews of the middle ages...the time when this story was first born and started to grow. Amidst persecution and pogroms, Jews had their plates full with death and unfinished business.

By way of historical accident, one of the last films of Yiddish cinema was called The Dybbuk. It was made in Poland just before World War II and actually featured many actors who would go on to die in the Holocaust. As one views this movie, one cannot suppress the realization that these actors -- cut down by the scythe of Nazi Germany -- were reduced to being merely screen images instead of the once living and breathing characters they'd been "before" (like all too many "dybbuks" that preceded them).

On top of this deep tradition of sadness and loss that is the story of the Dybbuk, children's author Sid Fleischman had decided to posit a children's story. Owing to the uneasy way the two genres relate, I felt a disconnect as author Fleischman tried to unify what was -- I fear -- non unifiable. Tried mightily he did but at the end of the day, I think Fleishman still ended up producing the written equivalent of Auschwitz: The Musical.

Like all other literature, when done right, I think it can be uniquely uplilfting and connecting experience.

Done wrong, it's worse than being incorrect. It becomes a characature of history.

I gave this book five stars because I think Fleischman did about as good as one could do having chosen the literary destination he did. Still the same, I would heartily caution readers and readers parents. If you or your child wishes to open the door opened by this book and learn more about the Dybbuk, be prepared by tragedy and sadness beyond your wildest nightmares.

Brings the horrors of WWII down to a level that kids/tweens can understand and accept without having to dive too deep into the uglyness of the war and death. The Story is about a Preteen Jewish boy and his need to bring his killer to light. Shows how his love for his sister and how he tried to keep her alive.

SId Fleishman is a supurb writer. This story obviously involved his emotions profoundly so it is not his usual light humor. I would have liked to know that it wasn't his usual genre.

The story has a setting relating to the holocaust. Children need to know about this tragic part of our world history, but not at a young age, and many of Fleishman's readers are young because of his imaginative appeal. I have purchased multiple copies of many of his books for distribution to grandchildren. I have not done so with this book. Like Mark Twain's Joan Of Arc, the author intended it to be one of his best works. He addressed the issue well, and resolved it in an amazing way.