To an Early Grave

By Wallace Markfield

Book Overview

When Leslie Braverman passes away at the early age of 41, four of his closest friends are reunited on an odyssey through the streets of Brooklyn in a beat-up Volkswagen searching for the funeral parlor. In a series of fits, starts and wrong-turns, the comedic banter that suffuses the journey of these four Jewish proponents of New Criticism and little-magazine writing is quietly transformed into a quest for the intellectual, emotional and sentimental aura of the past.

The basis for the 1968 movie "Bye Bye Braverman," "To An Early Grave" is a testament to the exuberant inventiveness of Wallace Markfield's writing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564782611
• ISBN13: 9781564782618
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 255 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 7.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

One of the classics of American Jewish literature

In its humor and the great play of feeling between its characters this work has a special place in American Jewish Literature. I know people who claim that this is their favorite work of all time. It is certainly a work which should be read and known far more than it is.