The Street (Four Walls Eight Windows): A Yiddish Novel from Between the World Wars [Paperback]

Israel Rabon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 1993

The Street By Israel Rabon. Translated from the Yiddish by Leonard Wolf. A novel of poverty and desperation in the tradition of Dostoevski's Notes from Underground. "Bold, disturbing." -the New York Times ISBN: 0-941423-45-X

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A homeless Jewish soldier encounters other lost souls while wandering the streets of post-WW I Poland in this tale of despair, first published in Yiddish in 1928. ``Rabon has remarkably created a character who responds acutely to the life of the city from which he is isolated, and this sensitivity adds beauty to the otherwise harsh, strange landscape of this striking novel,'' said PW.

Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Yiddish

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press (February 2, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 094142345X
• ISBN-13: 978-0941423458
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #693,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a vision of stark desperate reality and hopeful fantasy, October 14, 1997

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[e-mail] (new london, connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Street (Four Walls Eight Windows): A Yiddish Novel from Between the World Wars (Paperback)

The Street leads you into the life of a disillusioned and alone veteran. You experience the world as through the inner thoughts of a homeless, desparate veteran soldier. The narrator returns to lodz, poland after world war two, and is struck to find that he is not familiar with the world around him. He is broke and frightened upon re-entry into regular life. The Street follows the depth and despair of fantasy. Also, you see the ways that these darknesses might intwine with love and hope. Rabon explores the context of our emotions, and is able to illustrate how quick our mood may change. The characters are vulnerable and thoughtful. The street of the novel serves as a metaphor for being on the outside, for being poor and naive, in an industrial society. Rabon writes lyrically of the spare moments, as well as he writes clearly and plainly of the action. Yet the twists and turns of the yiddish language itself relate the story in a fundamentally non-traditional way. The book is a bridge between the stark realities of post-war life, and the magic of one's own journeys and fantasies.