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The Yid
The Yid: A Novel | Paul Goldberg
8 posts | 8 read | 1 reading | 5 to read
A DEBUT NOVEL OF DARING ORIGINALITY, THE YID GUARANTEES THAT YOU WILL NEVER THINK OF STALINIST RUSSIA, SHAKESPEARE, THEATER, YIDDISH, OR HISTORY THE SAME WAY AGAIN Moscow, February 1953. A week before Stalin's death, his final pogrom, "one that would forever rid the Motherland of the vermin," is in full swing. Three government goons arrive in the middle of the night to arrest Solomon Shimonovich Levinson, an actor from the defunct State Jewish Theater. But Levinson, though an old man, is a veteran of past wars, and his shocking response to the intruders sets in motion a series of events both zany and deadly as he proceeds to assemble a ragtag group to help him enact a mad-brilliant plot: the assassination of a tyrant. While the setting is Soviet Russia, the backdrop is Shakespeare: A mad king has a diabolical plan to exterminate and deport his country's remaining Jews. Levinson's cast of unlikely heroes includes Aleksandr Kogan, a machine-gunner in Levinson's Red Army band who has since become one of Moscow's premier surgeons; Frederick Lewis, an African American who came to the USSR to build smelters and stayed to work as an engineer, learning Russian, Esperanto, and Yiddish; and Kima Petrova, an enigmatic young woman with a score to settle. And wandering through the narrative, like a crazy Soviet Ragtime, are such historical figures as Paul Robeson, Solomon Mikhoels, and Marc Chagall. As hilarious as it is moving, as intellectual as it is violent, Paul Goldberg's THE YID is a tragicomic masterpiece of historical fiction.
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review
REPollock
The Yid: A Novel | Paul Goldberg
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Pickpick

The book is deeply odd but in a way i appreciated. The 3 primary characters are pretty badass men, & funny. A trio of assassins i would not mind hanging out with. I desperately wished for more character development of the women though. They're barely present, despite ultimately being fairly important to the outcome.

I suspect someone is already working on a dissertation about this. If not, they will be soon. It's meaty & there's a LOT to unfold.

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Anna40
The Yid: A Novel | Paul Goldberg
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Pickpick

Hilarious, clever, crazy book!

6 likes1 stack add
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chavalah
The Yid: A Novel | Paul Goldberg
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Mehso-so

Revenge satire, like the more clever, literary version of INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. A rag rag team, mostly comprised of Soviet Jews and some others, attempt to assassinate Stalin before he can pull off a Russian Holocaust. Real history featured antisemitism-driven executions around this time. Funny and even informative, but revenge satires aren't really my thing. Kept getting distracted from the story by caricatures and writing tricks. #JewLit

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JewishBookCouncil
The Yid: A Novel | Paul Goldberg
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"I learned as a kid in Moscow in the 1960s that books have power, and writers who are willing to tell the truth run the risk of getting arrested." #JewLit

Read the full interview with 'The Yid' author Paul Goldberg, 2017 finalist for the $100,000 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature: http://bit.ly/2qyyzzK

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Jex
The Yid: A Novel | Paul Goldberg
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A day late but who cares. Just started this last night with only the review from my FIL of, "it starts out really slow." Couldn't disagree more and definitely didn't think a book about Jewish resistance in 1950s Russia would make me laugh out loud. Can't wait to see where this one goes but I'm rooting for the characters fiercely. #recommendsday

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JewishBookCouncil
The Yid: A Novel | Paul Goldberg
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"I want all my characters to go through hell. And I have no compassion." Paul Goldberg discusses the long path to publication for 'The Yid' with his agent, Josh Getzler, and editor, James Meader of Picador at the 2016 #JewLit Writers' Seminar.

37 likes1 stack add
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Christy2318
The Yid: A Novel | Paul Goldberg
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Pickpick

Weird & absurdist but I liked it. Many references to Shakespeare & Kafka. I found myself wishing I had read The Trial & knew more about Russian history.

20 likes1 stack add
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Christy2318
The Yid: A Novel | Paul Goldberg
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