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The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky
In researching the life of his boxer father Sonny, historian Moses Lapinsky uncovers a pivotal event. On a hot Toronto night in 1933, at an amateur baseball game at Christie Pits field, four Nazi youths flashed a large black swastika, shouting "Heil Hitler!" Within seconds, a group of Jewish youths charged at them, trying to grab the flag. One of the Nazi youths snatches back the banner and breaks free, running with the flag through the park, setting off a four-hour race riot involving 15,000 people, injuring hundreds, and sending scores to the hospital. In this panoramic novel, Karen X. Tulchinsky traces the fortunes of the Lapinskys from the evening of the riots through World War II and into the 1950s. It is then, in a boxing ring at Madison Square Garden, that Sonny Lapinsky must decide whether or not to reconcile with a family torn apart by a violent past — a decision that will affect generations to come, including his son and future biographer, Moses. Set against the Great Depression, race riots, and World War II, this family saga about a Jewish boy-cum-champion boxer is filled with humor, sorrow, bravery, folly, and the stuff of everyday life.
496 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 30, 2013
I'll compare this book to a 3-D puzzle: The author tells the current situation then adds some background information which helps explain the current situation. She does it several times and I thought it led to a more interesting read.
The novel is a biography of a family, primarily during the first half of the twentieth century beginning with the flight to Canada in 1913 by Yakov Lapinsky following a progrom in Russia. He meets up with a cousin in Toronto and they become peddlers. Yakov marries and he and his wife have four sons. The family survives through the Depression, a riot by a group of Nazi sympathizers in 1933, World War II, and its aftermath.
One of the sons, Sonny, becomes a professional and highly successful boxer and there is a lot of information about the world of boxing. The author assumes the role of his grandson.
The influence of criminals on businesses and sports that help the family survive is detailed as are disasterous invasions that Canadian soldiers died in while trying to fight the Germans in France.
The role and effects of guilt play a tremendous part in this family's story. Yacov was not able to save his younger brother in Russia. His youngest son suffers a major brain injury in the riot in Canada. Everyone is blamed and everyone considers himself/herself guilty. The biggest effect is the way Yakov treats his sons because of his guilt.
It cleverly shows the doctor jovially explaining their son's brain injury to his parents, who lack the language skills and education to understand is technical explanation. The way Yakov treats his family is mirrored in the way Sonny treats his.
In many ways I found this a difficult book to read, especially the scenes during World War II, but it was definitely worth it.
The novel is a biography of a family, primarily during the first half of the twentieth century beginning with the flight to Canada in 1913 by Yakov Lapinsky following a progrom in Russia. He meets up with a cousin in Toronto and they become peddlers. Yakov marries and he and his wife have four sons. The family survives through the Depression, a riot by a group of Nazi sympathizers in 1933, World War II, and its aftermath.
One of the sons, Sonny, becomes a professional and highly successful boxer and there is a lot of information about the world of boxing. The author assumes the role of his grandson.
The influence of criminals on businesses and sports that help the family survive is detailed as are disasterous invasions that Canadian soldiers died in while trying to fight the Germans in France.
The role and effects of guilt play a tremendous part in this family's story. Yacov was not able to save his younger brother in Russia. His youngest son suffers a major brain injury in the riot in Canada. Everyone is blamed and everyone considers himself/herself guilty. The biggest effect is the way Yakov treats his sons because of his guilt.
It cleverly shows the doctor jovially explaining their son's brain injury to his parents, who lack the language skills and education to understand is technical explanation. The way Yakov treats his family is mirrored in the way Sonny treats his.
In many ways I found this a difficult book to read, especially the scenes during World War II, but it was definitely worth it.
December 29, 2014
I would give it six stars if I could.
September 24, 2019
I was gifted this book by a friend. Had never heard of it. Enjoyed the read. Have to say that I wanted to believe that it was a true story of a real family because I live in Toronto and know the streets and the area the Lapinsky family lived in in the novel. Really interest alignment by the author to the famous Ed's Warehouse concept for the Lapinsky store in the novel. Made me smile.
It is definitely a book about men, a family of men and a lot of male culture, but interesting that it is the women who provide the ways and means to heal the family rift that arises due to male pride and stubbornness. I like the way a range of themes weave through the family saga - cross cultural marriage, pregnancy before marriage or resulting in marriage, religious tensions played out during the time of Hitler, living through the Depression, gangsterism and innocence, and how well the gay culture is presented in the novel - through Lenny and the librarian and through the narrator Moses Lapinsky. Really well done.
The novel is long and sometimes I felt it was too long, something about the depth of detail that although interesting was tiring at times. But then I must also add that I have never read such vivid detail, from the perspective of a soldier, of the War and the reality of that lived experience on the beaches of Dieppe. Wow!
I loved getting to know the characters and really felt as a reader I knew the family very well. It wasn't hard at all to keep track of all the characters and what they were up to.
I learned about the Christie Pits Riot through reading this book. I had no idea of it beforehand.
I loved how this novel is structured - into five books plus a Prologue and Epilogue - with the Biography Notes by Moses Lapinsky framing a context for the story - and then the story itself. It just feels so real! Makes me want to walk over the Clinton and Palmerston and College and Spadina streets and hang out with the Lapinskys!
Very well done!
It is definitely a book about men, a family of men and a lot of male culture, but interesting that it is the women who provide the ways and means to heal the family rift that arises due to male pride and stubbornness. I like the way a range of themes weave through the family saga - cross cultural marriage, pregnancy before marriage or resulting in marriage, religious tensions played out during the time of Hitler, living through the Depression, gangsterism and innocence, and how well the gay culture is presented in the novel - through Lenny and the librarian and through the narrator Moses Lapinsky. Really well done.
The novel is long and sometimes I felt it was too long, something about the depth of detail that although interesting was tiring at times. But then I must also add that I have never read such vivid detail, from the perspective of a soldier, of the War and the reality of that lived experience on the beaches of Dieppe. Wow!
I loved getting to know the characters and really felt as a reader I knew the family very well. It wasn't hard at all to keep track of all the characters and what they were up to.
I learned about the Christie Pits Riot through reading this book. I had no idea of it beforehand.
I loved how this novel is structured - into five books plus a Prologue and Epilogue - with the Biography Notes by Moses Lapinsky framing a context for the story - and then the story itself. It just feels so real! Makes me want to walk over the Clinton and Palmerston and College and Spadina streets and hang out with the Lapinskys!
Very well done!
September 27, 2017
The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky is no Bible. It is rather a family saga in the likes of Howard Fast or Mario Puzo. This is the story of the Lapinsky family. The five “books” and an epilogue each contain an introduction by the narrator, one Moses Lapinsky, a learned historian, who wishes to record the tale of his father, Sonny, a world famous Jewish-Canadian boxer. This highly entertaining novel traces the remarkable fortunes and misfortunes of four generations of the Lapinsky family.
Most of our story takes place in Toronto, now home to Canada’s largest Jewish community. But in August 1933, things were not going too well for Toronto Jewry. This was the time of the Christie Pits riots, when a group of thugs marched into the predominantly Jewish area of town carrying a large banner with a black swastika and chanting “Heil Hitler”. Unlike their European brothers, the young Jews of Toronto fought back, and among these brave souls were the four Lapinsky brothers, Sid, Lenny, Sonny and Izzie.
For each brother, the riot has a different consequence, and the influences stay with them for the rest of their lives. The novel is chock full of “Jewish” problems like guilt, questioning the faith, intermarriage, and making a “good” living.
The characters are well described by Ms. Tulchinsky. We visit Moses’s great grandparents in Russia, and we learn how the family patriarch, Yakov, came to live in Canada. We read about Uncle Max and his foray into the stock market. And of course there is Checkie Seilgelman, the quintessential Jewish gangster, who finances Sonny’s boxing career.
This is a wonderful book that was fun to read and hard to put down.
Most of our story takes place in Toronto, now home to Canada’s largest Jewish community. But in August 1933, things were not going too well for Toronto Jewry. This was the time of the Christie Pits riots, when a group of thugs marched into the predominantly Jewish area of town carrying a large banner with a black swastika and chanting “Heil Hitler”. Unlike their European brothers, the young Jews of Toronto fought back, and among these brave souls were the four Lapinsky brothers, Sid, Lenny, Sonny and Izzie.
For each brother, the riot has a different consequence, and the influences stay with them for the rest of their lives. The novel is chock full of “Jewish” problems like guilt, questioning the faith, intermarriage, and making a “good” living.
The characters are well described by Ms. Tulchinsky. We visit Moses’s great grandparents in Russia, and we learn how the family patriarch, Yakov, came to live in Canada. We read about Uncle Max and his foray into the stock market. And of course there is Checkie Seilgelman, the quintessential Jewish gangster, who finances Sonny’s boxing career.
This is a wonderful book that was fun to read and hard to put down.
March 19, 2019
I read this book on a friend's recommendation. We both live in Toronto and the setting is Toronto prior to WWI and after WWII. A story about Jewish family living around the Kensington area. It had local interest for a Toronto Jewish person. It gives a good background and lead up to the riot at Christie Pits between Nazi and Jewish youth, followed the life of a son who became a welterweight champion of the world and flashed back to the father's life in Tiraspol, Russia and it's pogroms, one in which he lost a little brother for which he blamed himself throughout his life. These stories echoed the history of my family. However I found the quality of the writing poor, and found jarring anachronisms, like taking a tranquilizer and getting a Timex watch, both before these items existed.
I would've put the book down long before I finished it but didn't out of the duty of friendship to the person who recommended it. It has some good local history of both poor Jewish Toronto and the lifestyle of the times.
I would've put the book down long before I finished it but didn't out of the duty of friendship to the person who recommended it. It has some good local history of both poor Jewish Toronto and the lifestyle of the times.
February 3, 2025
This is a beautifully written book. It is so well written I felt like I was living within the story.
March 11, 2009
Absolutely fascinating, Ms Tulchinsky must have done years of research on the History of Toronto, the Christie Pit riots ( I live about a 5 minute walk from there) the warmly woven history of a Jewish family in the turn of the century Toronto, the struggles to fit into this Anglo Saxon society, that Italians and Jews often stuck together as the "outcasts" The Prize fighter who learned how to survive by any means, unfortunately his personal relationships did not work out too well.Lest I give the whole story away, please read this for yourself, I have the author on my radar looking for upcoming books.
February 4, 2010
Awesome awesome awesome. I've read her columns in Xtra West, and only recently found out from a co-worker that she's a novelist, too. I saw this sitting in the recommended reads section at the library, and the librarians did not let me down.
The storyline centers around a Jewish boxer living in Toronto during the second world war. I'm not Jewish, I don't know anything about boxing, and I'm a west coast girl that's not into war, yet this book (and the family it's about) drew me in so much I ended up finishing it in a weekend. A fantastic read with a great storyline and a history lesson thrown in.
The storyline centers around a Jewish boxer living in Toronto during the second world war. I'm not Jewish, I don't know anything about boxing, and I'm a west coast girl that's not into war, yet this book (and the family it's about) drew me in so much I ended up finishing it in a weekend. A fantastic read with a great storyline and a history lesson thrown in.
September 16, 2009
I wasn't into this book until I sat down with it for hours and got into the middle part. The characters were well developed and the action sequences were seamless. The story seemed to go on forever, though, and I was more interested and invested in the minor characters. I recommend it to people because of my attachment to one of the characters, not because of the book as a whole, if that makes sense.
September 1, 2008
This book got me stoked on reading novels again! I want to recommend it to all of my friends. It is an excellent way to learn about the Christie Pitts riots in Toronto and about some world war II stuff without having to sit through a really dry boring war novel. SUCH A GREAT BOOK!
August 14, 2012
This book is completely unlike her other works, which I have enjoyed. Truly evokes a time, place and era. Her descriptions of the men, their emotional limits and frustrations were especially thought provoking.
August 29, 2012
I had never heard of this book, and actually bought it at a thrift store for a buck... Well worth the money! I loved the historical references to the war, and even the simple day to day life of the characters. I couldn't put it down, once I got into it (which didn't take too long).
September 2, 2008
This book is brilliant. The story lines are compelling and I fell in love with every character. Amazing. Everyone should read this book.
September 18, 2008
I'm glad I took the time to read this book. This book was really touching. It had a lot of heart and soul.
Sonny Lapinsky is my new favorite anti-hero.
Sonny Lapinsky is my new favorite anti-hero.
September 10, 2008
If I could give it more than 5 I would. Probably best book I've ever read. Spans 3 generations of immigrants struggling with racism, violence and the depression.
June 28, 2012
interesting reading about Toronto's history
February 11, 2014
fun interesting read, set in toronto
April 22, 2017
I thought this book was great. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a not a biography. I had to look up Sonny Lapinsky just to make sure he wasn't a real person. Another very interesting perspective on WWII that you don't usually hear about. I love a good historical novel.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews