Sunday, July 23, 2000
The Tsaddik of the Seven Wonders
by Isidore Haiblum
This is billed as the first Yiddish science fantasy novel ever. It is about a tsaddik, which is a title for a very learned man. If I recall correctly, it's a bit more than a rabbi, perhaps with a mystical element involved. I forget the exact definition. (Like I can't afford to just buy a copy of The Joys of Yiddish.) Anyhoo, this tsaddik, named the Tsaddik, is quite magical and is travelling about through time. Meanwhile, in the future (I love messing with the tenses in a time travel discussion.), the Cosmo Corps has lost caseworker Lund in the past and caseworker Courtney is called in to finish Lund's mission. As you might surmise, eventually, the three men get together and, well, the story reaches its climax. (How it ends, I won't tell.) This book isn't memorable -- I had to skim the book to recall the plot. (Which I didn't tell you anyway.) But I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It has a very Yiddish flavor to it, as any reader of The Joys of Yiddish will recognize, and I loved almost every minute. Consequently, this one stays on my shelf. Anti-Semites might disagree, but then, I wouldn't recommend anything good to them. So there.
LibraryThing link
This is billed as the first Yiddish science fantasy novel ever. It is about a tsaddik, which is a title for a very learned man. If I recall correctly, it's a bit more than a rabbi, perhaps with a mystical element involved. I forget the exact definition. (Like I can't afford to just buy a copy of The Joys of Yiddish.) Anyhoo, this tsaddik, named the Tsaddik, is quite magical and is travelling about through time. Meanwhile, in the future (I love messing with the tenses in a time travel discussion.), the Cosmo Corps has lost caseworker Lund in the past and caseworker Courtney is called in to finish Lund's mission. As you might surmise, eventually, the three men get together and, well, the story reaches its climax. (How it ends, I won't tell.) This book isn't memorable -- I had to skim the book to recall the plot. (Which I didn't tell you anyway.) But I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It has a very Yiddish flavor to it, as any reader of The Joys of Yiddish will recognize, and I loved almost every minute. Consequently, this one stays on my shelf. Anti-Semites might disagree, but then, I wouldn't recommend anything good to them. So there.
LibraryThing link
Labels: OnMyShelf
// posted by John @ 5:48 PM 
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