The Shadows of Berlin: The Berlin Stories of Dovid Bergelson [Paperback]

Dovid Bergelson (Author), Joachim Neugroschel (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2005

Shadows of Berlin is, in part, a bleak chronicle of life in Europe growing ever more hostile at the edge of World War II, part mythic parable. Bergelson’s stories—passionate, honest, dark and often hilarious—hint at the possibility of redemption even as they suggest a horror just around the corner.

Dovid Bergelson (1884–1952) is considered to be one of the best Soviet Yiddish writers of the twentieth century. He was executed in 1952 as part of Stalin’s purge of Soviet Yiddish culture.

Joachim Neugroschel is the winner of three PEN Translation Awards and the French-American Translation Prize. His translations include works by Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust and Thomas Mann.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Neugroschel relates in his informative introduction that Bergelson, a notable Yiddish writer from Ukraine, spent 1922 to 1929 in Berlin, where his prolific output of stories included some set in that city. At that time, Berlin was a place of exile for many Yiddish intellectuals, and living there, Bergelson, whose fiction had previously focused on the bleak and wistful decay of the shtetl and on the frustrations of the Jewish bourgeoisie in the czarist realm, now focused on what Neugroschel describes as "individuals trapped in their own isolation and alienation." There are eight stories in this remarkable collection. One, "For 12,000 Bucks He Fasts Forty Days: Scenes of Berlin," deals with a young man sealed under glass in a restaurant, existing only on seltzer and cigarettes. "Among Refugees" concerns a Jewish terrorist tracking the notorious Ukrainian pogromist. "One Night Less" is the tale of a poet who roams the streets of Berlin at night, observing the lonely eccentrics. "The people in this forceful city do not fall into different types and characters--but the streets do," he observes. Bergelson was killed in 1952 in Stalin's final purge of Soviet Yiddish culture. Despite their bleakness, the stories contain some malicious humor. More importantly, they reveal the indomitable Jewish spirit in the face of past suffering and the tragedy to come. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Dovid Bergelson, one of the most renowned and influential writers of the 1900s, was born in Ocrimovo, Ukraine, in 1884. In 1952, at the age of 68, after four years of prison, he died a victim of Stalin's police. His work as a writer and literary man spans a period of approximately thirty years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872864448
• ISBN-13: 978-0872864443
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Idir dha thine, April 19, 2009

By 

J. S. Custer (Westbury NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Shadows of Berlin: The Berlin Stories of Dovid Bergelson (Paperback)

The Irish idiom "idir dha thine" approximates the English "of two minds" but literally means "between two fires." This is exactly the stance from which Dovid Bergelson's little collection of short stories emerges. Set in Berlin in the aftermath of WWI, the Eastern pogroms lie in the recent past, the horrors of the Shoah and Stalin's purge loom on the horizon. Bergelson experienced the former and perished in the latter.

From a shtetl in Ukraine to Weimar Berlin: perhaps it is no surprise that all these stories are marked by a certain binary quality. It may be a Job-like above-and-below theodicy: is the dispersion of the Jews the penalty for one pious old man's dismissal of a cold wife? It may be the bitterly ironic pairing of a Ukrainian pogromist with the jealous dog who murdered an infant foundling. It may be the perceived duplicity of the three sisters who run an unusual boarding house. It may be the questions of reality and appearance, act and motivation, raised by a freakshow fast undertaken in a restaurant. It may be the mirrorlike reaction of two sisters to the same handsome man. But always,there is a clear juxtaposition of two possibilities, two realities, two forces. Is this the last gasp of shtetl faith in the godless city? The culture shock of a refugee?

The stories are stronger in character than in setting or plot. There is no real feel for Berlin here, as there is, for example, in Doeblin's contemporary Berlin Alexanderplatz. Central European literature before WWII is often so claustrophobic and redolent of steamy kitchens and overfurnished parlors but there is little in these stories to touch or taste or smell. We are likewise far from I.B.Singer's mystical world, or Sholem Alechem's gently satiric vision.

The translation by Joachim Neugroschel is fluent and does not impose a "tone" much less an "accent" on the work. References to specifically Jewish culture are, in fact, few. Indeed, the narratives were so straightforward that I wished I had access to the original, just to hear what Bergelson's own voice and rhythm might have been--Galitzianer or Germanized?

I confess that I often choose books with an eye to time-travel or tourism and Weimar Germany is one of my favorite destinations. This expectation Bergelson failed to meet for me, but the characterizations and juxtapositions of these short stories are fine psychological studies in the best modern European tradition.