King of the Jews

Rating:
Summary: Powerful, visionary, epic.
Review: I came across Epstein's latest novel SAN REMO DRIVE in the new fiction section of the bookstore, and rather than pay hardcover price for a good read, I decided to see if the store had his backlist in stock, and came across this. Almost buried under a dozen highly laudatory blurbs, I decided to take a chance, and discovered a great work of literary art. Based on the Polish city of Lodz and the sort of puppet leader set up by the Nazis to govern/liaison the Jewish ghetto there, Epstein paints a teeming, vivid portrait of what it was like to live in the absurdity and morally ambiguous maze of the ghetto. With a grand cast of quickly drawn yet practically breathing-at-your-side characters, dark, dark humor and a consistently paced torrent of words that captures the nearly Bosch-like space of this harrowing, unbelievable and dastardly experience, I feverishly followed the rise and fall of what becomes an archetypal Jewish ghetto existence, if you can call it that. The best thing about it all is the lack of moralizing and judgement-making. Epstein just shows it like it is -- even though, thankfully, it is a thing that was. Historical. Hopefully. And lastly, but not leastly, I'm going to have to shell out hardcover cash to read his latest.

Rating:
Summary: Epstein makes us laugh, cry w/his ironic view of the tragidy
Review: In 'King of the Jews', Epstein tells a captivating story of a doomed Polish Jewish Ghetto during WWII. The narrator makes us laugh and cry with his ironic view of the tragedy. It was daring of the author to break with tradition by allowing the reader to perceive WWII ghetto life with a sense of humor. By omitting the extremes of WWII horror, Epstein makes the story more believable without mitigating the tragedy. I could emphathize with the struggles yet did not perceive the Jews as victims. A great script for Mr. Spielberg!

Rating:
Summary: A humorous and harrowing look at a holocaust ghetto-leader
Review: It's rare to come across a book like this, which as Epstein brings out in his own review, brings a comical tone to an event of serious and tragic nature such as the holocaust. But in doing so, Epstein makes the characters much more alive, human and real. For instance, at one point, after the Jews had been transported to the ghetto and they must meet a work quota to eat, a rabbi presiding over a funeral has been deprived of his day's rations for failing to meet the quota. At the same time the funeral is being carried on, a few orphans of the orphanage which I.C. Trumpelman, who is "King of the Jews" presides over, are trying to smuggle a cow, the only one in the ghetto, out to some children more in need of its milk than themselves. In the process, the cow escapes and falls into the hole meant for the dead man, a once wealthy man, named Fiebig, who went crazy. The citizens try to think of ways to get the cow out, and the rabbi tells them to cut it up humanely and divide the meat between themselves. The citizens, of course, decide to get the cow out of the pit, so they can put the dead man in, and the rabbi finally comes up with, "Let's eat Fiebig and bury the cow." The book leaves the reader to make their own decsions on the morals at hand, much as the people who lived through it did, from the Judenrat members and their president, Trumpelman, who rides a messianic white horse in his daft idea of playing a greater Moses to his people, to the opposers of the Judenrat who dream of themselves as being allied with the Red Army and kidnap an American in hopes of his taking home news as to what is actually going on in the ghettos. I found nothing vulgar in the book other than what humans usually seem to be guilty of under such circumstances, in fact, I think there were only 4 curse words and no sex scenes. Just the same, the novel has a definite edge, as when the Judenrat members, which is a comittee of about 15 people who preside over law in the ghetto, must decide who first to send to the concentration camps, and find suicide is not an option. Trumpelman controls even that. I definitley recommend this for all and any who are looking for a book about the holocaust without the usual S&M tales of the gestapo agents with black and oiled leathered gloves, or more attention to the details of torturing and horror than to any of the people who lived through it, people much like us. It reminds me more, without giving away the ending, of how one feels when given an identity card of someone alive during the holocaust whose identity you take on, when entering the Washington DC Holocaust Museum, and it is only at the end of your tour, that you find out if they lived or died. But as you turn the pages of your passport, your identity, you never stop hoping.

Rating:
Summary: Would make a damn good movie, someday
Review: King of the Jews is a compelling, interesting fascinating read that tells the story of Lodz, the last ghetto to be liquidated in Poland. I.C. Trumpelmann is the protagonist. Supposedly a doctor, he cons his people, leaves, and returns to rule them and "protect" them from the nazis. He is loved and hated. There are funny parts, but most are horrifying and sad. One of the more interesting things about "King.." is that it gives you a look at not only what life was like inside the ghetto, but also the Jewish politics behind it.
The down side is that there are so many characters it's difficult to remember who is who. I knew that this was based on a real man, but it took me a while to realize that Epstein had changed almost every major character's name, including Hitler's.
Either which way, this is a fascinating book, that if fell into the right hands, would make a movie that could rival Schindler's List. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: King of the Jews after twenty years
Review: This book was enormously controversial when it first appeared in 1979, even though it was one of only three novels on the NY Times best books of that year and was nominated for the Book Critics Circle Award. What disturbed people, I believe, was its tone--twenty years ago one did not use humor when dealing with the Holocaust--and its reliance upon Hannah Arendt as it examined the ethical dilemmas faced by Jewish leaders caught in the grip of the Germans. After all, the novel is based on a real man, Chaim Rumkowski (a fantastic figure who put his portrait on ghetto currency and ghetto stamps and who kept his people alive longer than any other Jewish Elder, even as he sent them to their deaths), who enjoyed the power he exercised over his subjects. I think time has established this book as a classic of Holocaust literature. It has never been out of print, has been translated into nine languages, and is taught in universities throughout the world. "This is the best novel yet written about the Holocaust," wrote Terrence Des Pres. "It is the only novel of its kind to survive the horror it confronts and emerge undamaged as a truly superior work of art."