Adventures of Mottel the Cantor's Son

Mottel, who is about 8 or 9 years old, tells this charming yet subtly pointed story, starting in the Russian village of Kasrilovka and ending up on the lower east side of New York, with much wandering through Europe in between. He is a mischievous boy who loves to draw and who above all is an extremely astute observer of the people around him, not only his mother who is always crying (after his father dies at the beginning of the book), his brother Eli who is always scheming and never smiling, and his sister-in-law Brocha who has huge feet and is always talking, but his extended "family" (especially the wonderful young man known as "our friend Pinney") and everyone else he encounters. This is not a happy time for Jews in Russia, as pogroms are frequent; getting to America is harder than anyone expects; Ellis Island is a prison for a time; and life in New York is full of opportunity but takes some getting used to; but Mottel is full of life and eager to live it to the fullest. He is a delightful creation.

Having really loved Aleichem's Wandering Stars, which I read last year, I approached this book with anticipation, and was somewhat turned off by the translator's note. Tamara Kahane, who translated the edition I have, was Aleichem's granddaughter and notes in her introduction that "my primary task was to make him (Mottel) human and real to the English reader . . . I have therefore ruthlessly sacrificed strange rhythms and exotic expressions . . . To those who know Yiddish and the works of Sholom Aleichem in that language, I proffer my apologies for I know that they will be dissatisfied." Although I don't know Yiddish, the Wandering Stars translation seemed to capture what I think of as the feeling of Yiddish, and at first I was disappointed with the translation of Mottel as it seemed a little flat, not lively enough. But gradually, and especially as the family set off for America, I became captivated by Mottel and was no longer annoyed by the translation.

A novel by Sholom Aleichem

Light and fun, but sophisticated funny short stories by the Yiddish Mark Twain. ( )