The Brothers Ashkenazi

By Israel J. Singer

Book Overview

In the Polish city of Lodz, the Brothers Ashkenazi grew up very differently in talent and in temperament. Max, the firstborn, is fiercely intelligent and conniving, determined to succeed financially... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590512901
• ISBN13: 9781590512906
• Release Date: October 2010
• Publisher: Other Press (NY)
• Length: 460 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Range and Depth

I.J. Singer's Brothers is a compendium of the Jewish experience in 20th century Europe. The full compliment of elements are here that we have come to expect in a Yiddish novel that deals with the breakdown of traditional Jewish life. Very similar to Buddenbrooks and other novels of a family's decline, the Brothers seems to view history as essentially degenerating; in the end, we are left without a way out of the morass of modernity.

Magnificent!!!!

Excellent story about the rise and fall of the Ashkenazi family, which covers different historical stages like the Industrial Revolution, rise of Capitalism and Communism, World War I, etc. But above all the novel deals with the issue of the nature of the Jewish identity, and it is here where it really succeeds. Singer enforces the fact that for every hardship endured, the Jewish community always ends up being the scapegoat.What also struck me is the angry and pessimistic tone that Singer employs throughout the story. Most characters are mean and selfish, inflicting continuous suffering to others. As the preface points out (at least in the Spanish edition), Singer seems to have a premonition concerning the fate of the Jewish community in the years following the novel.This is a fantastic historical saga, very educational and thought-provoking.

It is good story, rich in character and broad in reach.

The story begins at the beginning, prior to the nearly simultaneous birth of two brothers. Not quite Cain and Abel, the brothers grow apart and together, mixing people,places,positions. With verve and breadth, it tells how each individual becomes his own choices, with the help and the hindrance of the Jewish community in Poland in the early 20th century. What a story!

amazing

This book is an amazing piece of work. You can really see the struggles that the Jewish population in Poland had to endure in the decades before WWII. Some of the characters are truly detestable at, other times they are to be pitied. All in all, a very tragic book.