Scum

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating novel about a lost world
Review: Singer (and his translator) manages with beautiful, easy-to-read prose, to evoke a lost world. His sketches of the the people and places in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw c 1906 are memorable and convincing. While I was reading the book I was conscious that the city was flattened in the 1940s and 6/7 of Polish Jews were murdered during the Nazi occupation - i.e. a stark dark line through history cut Max's world off from from today's Poland. Max recalls the assimilated, Spanish speaking Jewish community in Argentina and the ultra-conservative village in Western Poland where he grew up - and to which he is forever planning to return. He observes the pious Warsaw families in their detailed preparations for and observation of the Sabbath - but also the other Jews, the thieves, pimps, whores who live in the same street, and the middle class Jews in their large apartments a few blocks away. This multi-layered community speaks a different language from the millions of Poles that surround them and is loathed by many of the hosts. Singer makes occasional refererence to the pogroms, anti-Semitism, the Russian occupation, but it is not an overtly political novel. It concentrates on the the street life in the ghetto and specifically on the character of Max. Manic mad Max can't help getting into trouble. He lurches from one messy encounter to the next, creating new dangers for himself even before the previous one has been resolved. He has a wife in Argentina, yet promises himself to several Warsaw women in his first few days in the city. His treatment of women is appalling, yet by highlighting his protagonist's self-awareness, self-loathing, his profound grief over his lost son, his occasional moments of kindness, his guilt and conscience, Singer will endear his extraordinary creation to many readers. Max is deeply lonely and Singer explains much of his bizarre behaviour with reference to his desperate need to avoid being alone with his despair. This is my first Singer novel and I will definitely read others - he creates both a strong multi-dimensional central character and a powerful sense of place with stark, economical prose. A glossary of religious and cultural terms would have been helpful - and a few pages of recipes would have been a treat (although I'll skip the cabbage fried in lard!)