Songs for the Butcher's Daughter by Peter Manseau was mesmerizingly wonderful. I am so thankful to other bloggers who reviewed it which encouraged me to pick it up. The story is told in two voices and two time periods. It is a story of love and loss, beauty and truth, and faith. It is an old man's memoirs and a young man's thoughts and dreams. The voices and stories are alternated between an old Jewish man, Itsik Malpesh, who has written his life story via the Yiddish alphabet and a young Catholic man who, through translator's notes written as he translates Malpesh's story from Yiddish to English, interjects his own story and problems. Malpesh's story begins in 1903 in Bessarabia, follows him through the two world wars, and to Baltimore where the collaboration begins between the two men. The younger man is a college graduate with a degree in religions and languages. He has recently learned to read Yiddish and comes to meet with Malpesh. This is the great coincidence of the book and holds the wonder of both men's stories. ( )

The reader receives Songs for the Butcher's Daughter as the translated memoir of Itzik Malpesh, the self-proclaimed greatest Yiddish poet in America (having outlived the rest of them). Malpesh is now in his nineties, and trying to preserve Yiddish and Jewish history as best he can in a world that's not especially interested in either.

Itzik's life begins with strife and tragedy as the Russians attack his house in a pogrom on the night of his birth; the tensions between religion and society and Jewish identity only get worse as he grows up and sees more of the world. In New York, he finds only a half-hearted Yiddish press, and nobody interested in publishing Yiddish poetry. We see Itsik struggle against this - how does one react when a language or culture has been made obsolete?

This is a bittersweet and sincere novel, a seemingly simple and clean story that focuses on so many issues and does it so well. Its pitch is both Jewish and American, figuring out how to reconcile the culture gap just as Itsik tries to navigate it. ( )

You can read my full review on my Jew Wishes website. http://jewwishes.wordpress.com/2009/0...

Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter, by Peter Manseau, is a novel that is quite an accomplishment in many aspects, but especially in Manseau’s ability to convey the adversities and horrors of the Russian pogroms at the turn of the twentieth century.

Itsik Malpesh was born in Kishinev during the the Russian pogroms, to a well off family. The events of his birth, as told to him by his mother, are what has shaped his life, and shaped his perception on love. This novel is Itsik’s story, although it reads like a memoir that could be based on an actual person. That is due to the fact that the format includes a novel-within-the-novel, which is part of Manseau’s writing brilliance and creative edge.

Itsik is a poet, and he has considered himself one since he was a young boy. In 1996, he gave his poems, written in Yiddish, to a translator, to be translated into English. The translator is not Jewish. He works at a warehouse that is storing Yiddish books, books of a dying language, a language that is becoming lost within the modern world of the mid 1990s. He reads and speaks Yiddish. He is not Jewish, but has been assumed to be so, and does not reveal the truth about himself in order to try to win the affections of a co-worker named Clara.

Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter has an unusual format, with chapters alternating between “Translator’s Notes”, and Malpesh’s notebooks, “The Memoirs of Itsik Malpesh”. Malpesh’s notebooks details his life story, his love for Sasha, and the people and events that played a major role in his life’s quest towards his bashert, his destiny. He believes that his poems are a masterpiece, and his arrogance shines through the pages. His determination to publish his works, and his steadfastness in keeping the memory of Sasha alive, is the only thing that motivates him. From shoveling goose feathers and excrement from the floor of the down factory, to his learning to read Russian through the tutoring of a fellow yeshiva student, the novel takes Malpesh to Odessa, takes him penniless to New York, and eventually to Baltimore, and with each step, Sasha is at his side, through his poetry.

Manseau has given the reader much to ponder as far as bashert/destiny is concerned. What about the ramifications of believing in bashert or destiny? It isn’t always the romantic vision that one replays in their mind. It can imprison individuals, can hold them back from moving forward with their lives, unmotivated and not choosing to exercise their free will. What about the events and tragedies that can lead up to that moment when a person meets their soul mate, their bashert or destiny? Does it then signify that it is fine for others to possibly die or be involved in horrific situations all in the name of bashert? I asked myself these questions while reading the book. I asked myself many other questions, such as what is the meaning and the depth of language as far as our identities are concerned?

The heightened images also include some humor, and the book isn’t entirely depressing or dark. The Eastern European Jewish immigrant and their experiences are portrayed with extreme illumination, and nothing is left to the imagination. We experience Malpesh’s frustrations, his heartbreaks, the tragedies, etc., through his eyes, and through the compelling and creative imagery of Manseau.

In my opinon, Peter Manseau has written a classic novel, and one that will be considered such for decades to come. He touches on the very core elements of life, such as ethics, responsibility, language, and our roots. Both happiness and sadness fill the pages. Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter is masterfully written, and the pages evoke an extremely strong sense of time and place, immigration and assimilation, love and longing, and language and identity. I highly recommend it to everyone. ( )

I know that "butcher" is in the title, but I didn't expect the book to be so graphic. It started out really good, then I gave up as the author was explaining the down factory where his father worked.

Thoroughly good read - was going to say enjoyable but perhaps that is not the most appropriate word given the context of the start of the story.

The book provides a real feel of the emotions of Malpesh as he journeys from his birth town and family to the 'new world' and supposedly safety from persecution. It will appeal also to anyone who enjoys 'errant knight tales' or romantic heroes - since he is 'led along his life path' looking for a lost love ... and the tender ending with a journey completed is delightfully poignant.

All the characters are believable; the background detail of the locations is well researched and the linguistic elements lend additional authenticity to the tale without being intrusive.

A 'make you think' book which is also a well written story. ( )