Customer Reviews

King of the Jews (Norton Paperback Fiction)

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It's rare to come across a book like this, which as Epstein brings out in his own review, brings a comical tone to an event of serious and tragic nature such as the holocaust. But in doing so, Epstein makes the characters much more alive, human and real. For instance, at one point, after the Jews had been transported to the ghetto and they must meet a work quota to eat, a rabbi presiding over a funeral has been deprived of his day's rations for failing to meet the quota. At the same time the funeral is being carried on, a few orphans of the orphanage which I.C. Trumpelman, who is "King of the Jews" presides over, are trying to smuggle a cow, the only one in the ghetto, out to some children more in need of its milk than themselves. In the process, the cow escapes and falls into the hole meant for the dead man, a once wealthy man, named Fiebig, who went crazy. The citizens try to think of ways to get the cow out, and the rabbi tells them to cut it up humanely and divide the meat between themselves. The citizens, of course, decide to get the cow out of the pit, so they can put the dead man in, and the rabbi finally comes up with, "Let's eat Fiebig and bury the cow." The book leaves the reader to make their own decsions on the morals at hand, much as the people who lived through it did, from the Judenrat members and their president, Trumpelman, who rides a messianic white horse in his daft idea of playing a greater Moses to his people, to the opposers of the Judenrat who dream of themselves as being allied with the Red Army and kidnap an American in hopes of his taking home news as to what is actually going on in the ghettos. I found nothing vulgar in the book other than what humans usually seem to be guilty of under such circumstances, in fact, I think there were only 4 curse words and no sex scenes. Just the same, the novel has a definite edge, as when the Judenrat members, which is a comittee of about 15 people who preside over law in the ghetto, must decide who first to send to the concentration camps, and find suicide is not an option. Trumpelman controls even that. I definitley recommend this for all and any who are looking for a book about the holocaust without the usual S&M tales of the gestapo agents with black and oiled leathered gloves, or more attention to the details of torturing and horror than to any of the people who lived through it, people much like us. It reminds me more, without giving away the ending, of how one feels when given an identity card of someone alive during the holocaust whose identity you take on, when entering the Washington DC Holocaust Museum, and it is only at the end of your tour, that you find out if they lived or died. But as you turn the pages of your passport, your identity, you never stop hoping.

In 'King of the Jews', Epstein tells a captivating story of a doomed Polish Jewish Ghetto during WWII. The narrator makes us laugh and cry with his ironic view of the tragedy. It was daring of the author to break with tradition by allowing the reader to perceive WWII ghetto life with a sense of humor. By omitting the extremes of WWII horror, Epstein makes the story more believable without mitigating the tragedy. I could emphathize with the struggles yet did not perceive the Jews as victims. A great script for Mr. Spielberg!

I came across Epstein's latest novel SAN REMO DRIVE in the new fiction section of the bookstore, and rather than pay hardcover price for a good read, I decided to see if the store had his backlist in stock, and came across this. Almost buried under a dozen highly laudatory blurbs, I decided to take a chance, and discovered a great work of literary art. Based on the Polish city of Lodz and the sort of puppet leader set up by the Nazis to govern/liaison the Jewish ghetto there, Epstein paints a teeming, vivid portrait of what it was like to live in the absurdity and morally ambiguous maze of the ghetto. With a grand cast of quickly drawn yet practically breathing-at-your-side characters, dark, dark humor and a consistently paced torrent of words that captures the nearly Bosch-like space of this harrowing, unbelievable and dastardly experience, I feverishly followed the rise and fall of what becomes an archetypal Jewish ghetto existence, if you can call it that. The best thing about it all is the lack of moralizing and judgement-making. Epstein just shows it like it is -- even though, thankfully, it is a thing that was. Historical. Hopefully. And lastly, but not leastly, I'm going to have to shell out hardcover cash to read his latest.

King of the Jews is a compelling, interesting fascinating read that tells the story of Lodz, the last ghetto to be liquidated in Poland. I.C. Trumpelmann is the protagonist. Supposedly a doctor, he cons his people, leaves, and returns to rule them and "protect" them from the nazis. He is loved and hated. There are funny parts, but most are horrifying and sad. One of the more interesting things about "King.." is that it gives you a look at not only what life was like inside the ghetto, but also the Jewish politics behind it.
The down side is that there are so many characters it's difficult to remember who is who. I knew that this was based on a real man, but it took me a while to realize that Epstein had changed almost every major character's name, including Hitler's.
Either which way, this is a fascinating book, that if fell into the right hands, would make a movie that could rival Schindler's List. Highly recommended.

Although I found this novel interesting I thought the story of the REAL Rumkowski and the Lodz ghetto is even more fascinating and horrifying. One of the best books I have read on the real story is "Rumkowski and the Orphans of Lodz" which tells about all the children Rumkowski molested both before and during WW2.
Many of the children he molested before the war tell their sad story to the author of that book during the war when she too was in the ghetto at Lodz that was run like a dictatorship by Rumkowski. He even had money and stamps with his portrait printed and his picture was in most offices (like Hitler's was in the Nazi offices). When you read that book you'll find that most of the ghetto residents hated and feared Rumkowski, and for good reason!

In 1979, Epstein published his daring Holocaust novel about the men who ran the Jundenrats of the ghettos - men who thought, quite sincerely at times, that by compromising, negotiating and temporising with the Nazis who were utterly frank about their desire to exterminate the Jews, soemthing could be gained. Above all, the Judenrat believed in the efficacy of sacrifice - if the Jewish community could only sacrifice the one thing the Nazis desired, they would abasondon their silly threats about complete extermination.
In 2010, new aspiring Judenrats have emerged - J Street, the better part of the American Rabbinate, Jewish intellectuals like Jony Judt and Peter Beinart and Micahel Chabon who believe - who want to believe - that if they qualify as one of Professor Mearsheimer's "righteous Jews," the world will be satisfied with the sacrfice of the Jews who happpen to live in Israel. After all, the Irraelis are guilty of all sorts of vices - they must be, or else they wouldn't be so hated.
In ancy case, re-read Epstein's book - not because he is clearer-eyed about the enemies of Jews, - for all I know, as a liberal, he may be on the side of Beinert and George Soros. The greatness of the book is not its understanding of the enemies of Jewry - they are no more interesting or complicated now than they have ever been - but of the illusions and self-deceptions that Jews themselves, whose survival depends on clear understanding, practice upon themselves. They don't quite practice them on themselves,of course, but upon momebers of their community whom they regard as social embarrassments. IF we sacrifice these people with enough alacrity, and enough sympathy for those who hate them (and us too), their lives will satiate the bastards before they come to us. It's a beautiful plan.