Beyond the Pale

by Elana Dykewomon

Book Overview

Winner of the Lambda Literary Award: "A page-turner that brings to life turn-of-the-century New York's Lower East Side." --Library Journal Born in a Russian-Jewish settlement, Gutke Gurvich is a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 155192613X
• ISBN13: 9781551926131
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Raincoast Books
• Length: 406 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An extremely moving read

This was a book that I could not put down. The story follows two immigrant women from Russia to America, where they quickly learn that they have left neither poverty nor struggle behind. The characters face so much hardship and tragedy in this story, and yet the darkness is far from oppressing, as one might find with other authors who have attempted a story such as this. Yes, there is profound sadness in this book (the account of the Triangle fire is almost to hard to read), but there is also joy, understanding and an amazing sense of connection with the characters that will stay with the reader long after the book is finished.

So much to learn

I finished Beyond the Pale more than 4 weeks ago, yet it is still resonating within me. The author's writing style is wonderfully rich. Her love of language is obvious as she writes quite poetically. I am neither Jewish nor a lesbian, however I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In many, many ways it is a great educational experience that I would recommend to anyone.

Just Beautiful

Amazing story about amazing women. Also about the Jewish identity. The author mentions that she wanted to tell a story of Jewish persecution outside the Holocaust, to show that it was not an isolated event but the result of a worlwide hatred and she succeeded completley. This is a book that I felt brought my heritage, both as a woman who likes women and the daughter of a Jewish man into sharp relief, but I'd reccommend it to anyone, for the writing and the stories that need to be told that are braided into it.

Beyond the Pulp

Elana uses the themes of love, loss, family, tradition, and religion to weave a novel that tackles life's core issues and illuminates several historical time-periods. This book does not use the ho-hum traps most "love stories" employ to keep the reader from figuring out that the plot is recycled. The narration is poetic and the dialogue fresh. The characters are complex women, identifiable and yet unpredictable. While making the lesbian characters and their "culture" the central focus of the story, Elana incorporates the families, friends, and general society into the plot beautifully. Even they seem as real as your own mother and neighborhood Rabbi. The historical settings, of both Russia during the Pogroms and early industrial America, give the book great depth. There is no guilt in the pleasure of this novel.

An Outstanding, Memorable Book - A Joy to Read

One of the most wonderful, beautiful books I have read in the last 20 years. The author has woven a lovely, touching -- and yet, horrifying -- chronicle of Jewish life in the Pale of Settlement in Russia and the tenements of New York in the late 1890's and early 1900's. Some of the language simply takes your breath away. Ms. Dykewomon's command on the language is so outstanding I found myself stopping at sentences and marveling at what she had written. Obviously exquisitely researched, Beyond the Pale makes daily life in primarily rural Russia come alive: with all its beauty and all its horror. I have read no finer, more human-oriented account of a pogrom -- and this is an area of historical interest to me. Ms. Dykewomon's characters do not find the "Golden Streets" of the new world when they migrate to New York. Instead, they discover numbing poverty, bedbugs and rats they were hardly used to in the "old country" and the dehumanization of their lives by the factories and take-home piecework which were necessary for mere survival. The author shows these poor souls as the human beings they are and does a truly outstanding job of detailing how the love, kindness, wants and needs of such people can survive amid terrible conditions. Beyond the Pale is a song; it is a lament. While the major characters and author are lesbians, it would be inappropriate to characterize Beyond the Pale as lesbian literature. For those who would be offended and refuse to read this book because of that, it is your great loss. Read this book and cry when you finish. Both for what happens and because there are no more pages to read. I hope the author, who has published other works, will return to the general theme (or a sequel) in the future. She writes historical fiction at its best.