About this title: A young Irish Catholic boy growing up in Brooklyn makes a deal with a rabbi in his neighborhood: Michael will teach Rabbi Hirsch about baseball and help him improve his English; in return, the rabbi will teach the boy Yiddish. This strange compact ends in Michael's beating by Frankie the local bully, followed by his mystical revenge.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Warner Books
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780446606257ISBN:0446606251
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Light edge and corner wear. No marks. Tight binding. Tanning pages. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 400 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very Good. 0446606251 Great condition paperback book, clean pages, mild creases to spine, some edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Vision, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780446606257ISBN:0446606251
Description: Very Good. 0446606251 Mass market paperback, previously read used book in very good condition, may have slight worn corners and varying degre..._ read more
"Set in Brooklyn in 1947 - this book explores the joys, pains and mysteries of youth. A friendship forms between an 11 yr old Catholic boy and a Rabbi. Due to a band of anti-Semitic neighborhood toughs, the rabbi and boy get caught in a dangerous "spiral of hate" that binds the complexity of their friendship even tighter.
Jill - you asked me about my top 10 and this is up there with Wallace Stegner and "Crossing to Safety". A beautiful story and must read."
"A wonderful novel--the story of a remarkable friendship between an 11-year-old Irish Catholic boy & an Orthodox Jewish rabbi in NYC in 1947 (the year Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball). It's a story of faith & doubt, magic & mystery, baseball & theology (occasionally they're one & the same), exuberance & fear, humor & sorrow, death & redemption, all very nicely balanced. A few chapters are gems almost on their own, like the chapter when a group of Catholics skip Mass on Easter Sunday to wash swastikas & anti-Semitic graffiti off the synagogue."
"this book is about a young irish kid in brooklyn in 1946-7, who befriends a rabbi. i love the book because of the relationship between michael and rabbi hirsch, michael's constant idealism, and for the the description of brooklyn. everything is so absolutely real, despite the rampant idealism. its black and white between good and evil, but you cannot help get attached to the characters. the ending was over the top and not good, but it does not ruin it. the real weak point in the writing is when it is so direct. michael is struggling with issues of race and religion and friendships and loyalty, and that is obvious, but at points in the text it is stated that he is struggling and torn. it would have better to have been shown this rather than told it."
"This book is about prejudice and injustice. For that reason I could not get through it; only making it about half-way. Here is the reason.
The Holocaust was a horror and, before it, the mistreatment of Jews through the ages. As a reaction to this, a broad effort has been made to publicize these wrongs of the past. There is a Holocaust Memorial in Washington, D.C., there is also one about 3 miles from where I live, upon which millions have been spent. In Illinois, it is the law that all school children must be taught about the Holocaust before they reach high school.
In other words, there is little to no chance of Americans not knowing about this horror of the past. That is all to the good.
However, injustice in the present is the only kind we can act upon and right now Palestinians are suffering terribly in their own land at the hands of Jewish settlers who have taken possession of lands not theirs, also suffering at the hands of the State of Israel that builds modern roads in the occupied territories and denies the use of them to the people upon whose land they are built, suffering daily in denial of imports, denial of electricity, denial of the ability to simply get from one town to another without the leave of Jewish soldiers and always, always subject to unannounced entry into their homes.
The United States, to its credit, has opposed the settlement movement from the start. To its disgrace it has done little or nothing in practice to oppose it. Now, at last, there is an administration that has taken a stand against this injustice of over 40 years.
So I could not read a page without thinking of the West Bank right this minute and of the millions of Americans who do not speak out against what is happening there with the support of their taxes, with no objection by their Congress and, quite possibly, with far less awareness by the public then of the terrible events of 60 years ago.
Pete Hamill's book is just another of so many books, plays, movies, TV shows that tie in to the Holocaust, while another albeit less deadly holocaust is taking place as I write.
My advice to potential readers of this book is to save the money it would cost to buy and instead make a contribution to the worthy Jewish organizations that are working to oppose and roll back the odious settlement effort; organizations that work for justice now. B'Tselem and Peace Now are only two examples. SouthJerusalem.com is a website that deals with the same issue."
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