Stealing the Borders: A Warm, Witty and Outrageous Autobiography (First Edition 1994)

By Elliot Rais

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1561713252
• ISBN13: 9781561713257
• Release Date: June 1994
• Publisher: Spi Books
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 0.8" x 4.0"

Customer Reviews

Good memoir

While trolling through a local discount bookseller a month or so ago I came across a small 1994 paperback book called Stealing The Borders, by Elliot Rais. It was blue in color, and boasted two front cover blurbs that caught my eye. No, they were not of the usual fellatric variety from another writer who expected favors done in return. Instead they were from Borscht Belt comedian Jackie Mason and comic actress Madeline Kahn. The former's read, `It made me cry. It made me laugh. It was so good, I can't believe I didn't write it myself.' The latter's read, `....Fascinating. It's hard to put it down.' The book's website, www.webdriver.com/go/stealing, even comes with a blurb from a local paper of my old New York City nabe, The Ridgewood News. It says, `Stealing The Borders will steal your heart.' Well, not exactly. And Jackie Mason is not noted as a top literary critic. Still, despite being an autobiography written by a man who's not a professional writer it's alot more fluid and interesting than some of the bilious and dull memoirs that have crept into public in the decade-plus since, such as the crap put forth by a Dave Eggers or an Elizabeth Wurtzel. Rais is an entrepreneur, inventor, professor, and engineer who grew up in Europe during World War Two- he was born in 1940. His family lived in Germany, Russia, other Soviet states, and they kept heading east to avoid the Nazi push into Mother Russia. There, Rais knew happiness, albeit an uneducated one- he spent only two months in formal schooling until he was twelve. This happiness consisted mostly of speaking to other lost souls and eating bugs. There is a great deal of humor in the book, and much of it comes from the blunt, and deadpan stylings from Rais's pen. While the book boasts that his tale is Horatio Alger meets Woody Allen, and akin to the best works of Neil Simon and Philip Roth, the truth is the book reminded me of a lesser version of an unpublished novel I read by Bruce Ario, called Cityboy. Something odd, affecting, or humorous occurs, and Rais tells it straight, then moves on unaffectedly. He has a rat-a-tat rhythm to his writing, which results in a very Vaudevillian comic tempo to his revelations. After the war ended Rais and his Jewish clan, fled Stalinist Russia by night, and snuck back across into West Germany, where they spent nearly seven years in a DP (Displaced Persons) camp, scrimping and saving enough money to make a long boat trip to America in 1951. Even at an early age Rais showed entrepreneurial skills, by hawking some ice cream his family made in the camp. But, mostly his life seemed to be a budding comedian's delight. Between breaks of his leg, Rais had a wonderful time. Even when he wore a cast he was able to seduce a little blond Aryan girl into his bed. His arrival in America was not what he thought it would be, but his parents scraped, and he survived years in public school classes filled with delinquents because he was almost illiterate. Several funny sc