Polish Jewry

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 286, 3 December 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

Polish Jewry

MR- I. J. SINGER'S new book "The River Breaks Up" (Putnam) opens against the back- ' ground that was made familiar in The Brothers Ashkenazi." Here [ we are shown in a collection of short ; stories many aspects of the life of Polish Jewry. The racial background provides [ the continuity of the series of stories, of . which each one deals with a different • group of characters; indeed the last one moves as far afield as America to show i the acclimatisation of a Lithuanian Jewish shoemaker and his wife, and the development of their American-born son. , This story seems to lift the book suddenly out of the almost medieval atmosphere that envelops it. It is difficult to say exactly what it is that makes the book as a whole somewhat disappointing. There is an almost extravagant wealth of incident, of strange, exotic characters, of dramatic and tragic situations, and the setting itself is one which should arouse the imagination. And yet it does not seem to do so. Perhaps only a certain heaviness in the telling of the story causes the characters to remain lifeless to the reader in spite of their violent action. But Mr. Singer's subject » itself so powerful, and his affectiqji and sympathy for his motley collection of characters obviously so strong, that any faults of execution will probably be overlooked. ♦*♦ * .