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Ravage & Son
A master storyteller’s novel of crime, corruption, and antisemitism in early 20th-century Manhattan
Ravage & Son reflects the lost world of Manhattan’s Lower East Side—the cradle of Jewish immigration during the first years of the twentieth century—in a dark mirror.
Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, serves as the conscience of the Jewish ghetto teeming with rogue cops and swindlers. He rescues Ben Ravage, an orphan, from a trade school and sends him off to Harvard to earn a law degree. But upon his return, Ben rejects the chance to escape his gritty origins and instead becomes a detective for the Kehilla, a quixotic gang backed by wealthy uptown patrons to help the police rid the Lower East Side of criminals. Charged with rooting out the Jewish “Mr. Hyde,” a half-mad villain who attacks the prostitutes of Allen Street, Ben discovers that his fate is irrevocably tied to that of this violent, sinister man.
A lurid tale of revenge, this wildly evocative, suspenseful noir is vintage Jerome Charyn.
288 pages, Paperback
Published August 22, 2023
16 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Jerome Charyn
220 books228 followersJerome Charyn is an award-winning American author. With more than 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature." New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers."
Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published thirty novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays, and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year.
Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. Charyn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the American University of Paris.
In addition to writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top ten percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn's most recent novel, Jerzy, was described by The New Yorker as a "fictional fantasia" about the life of Jerzy Kosinski, the controversial author of The Painted Bird. In 2010, Charyn wrote The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, an imagined autobiography of the renowned poet, a book characterized by Joyce Carol Oates as a "fever-dream picaresque."
Charyn lives in New York City. He's currently working with artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka on an animated television series based on his Isaac Sidel crime novels.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature." New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers."
Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published thirty novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays, and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year.
Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. Charyn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the American University of Paris.
In addition to writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top ten percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn's most recent novel, Jerzy, was described by The New Yorker as a "fictional fantasia" about the life of Jerzy Kosinski, the controversial author of The Painted Bird. In 2010, Charyn wrote The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, an imagined autobiography of the renowned poet, a book characterized by Joyce Carol Oates as a "fever-dream picaresque."
Charyn lives in New York City. He's currently working with artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka on an animated television series based on his Isaac Sidel crime novels.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 6, 2023
This was a very vivid picture of life in the Jewish ghetto of the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early 20th century. Ravage ruthlessly ruled the Jewish ghetto while his illegitimate son Ben joined the crime fighters after earning a law degree from Harvard. Corruption and violence were rampant here. I am sure that some of this was accurate, but the plot often felt contrived - from Ravage’s obsession with his cat (I love cats, but this was excessive), to the ex-con/enforcer with his canaries. There was a lot going on here, but it was very entertaining and the writing was often beautiful. The book led me to a history book about this period. Which is one of my goals when reading historical fiction.
August 19, 2023
Ravage & Son is a dark and often painfully sad book. I requested it because my father was a Russian Jew who grew up on New York City’s lower East Side in the early 20th century and I wanted to read more about this. And also because Jerome Charyn is a gifted writer—I’ve read other books of his and am always impressed.
I will say that if I hadn’t won the book and had to write a review, I would have stopped early on because of animal cruelty. Consider this a trigger warning. Ordinarily, I would not have read past this but I’m glad I did, even though, as I said, there is much sadness in this book.
The book begins with Lionel Ravage, a landlord and businessman whose empty life is lit up when he falls in love with Manya. However, his is a blindly possessive and all-devouring love and he resents the son (Ben) Manya bears him because he cannot share his love.
However, he pours his resources into Ben—with the expectation that Ben will one day join his business. But Ben disappoints him by becoming a detective, whose search for a murderer, in partnership with Abraham Cahan, publisher of a progressive Jewish newspaper, brings him into confrontation with the corruption of the infamous Tammany Hall and the rest of New York City’s deeply corrupt government and judicial systems, as well as crime bosses. And it hits close to home as his father’s involvement in it all is revealed.
This is a story, with roots in historical reality, that is near and dear to me. Charyn creates this world of corruption, power, as well as the daily reality of the Jewish immigrants and their life in this time and play with compelling clarity.
There is no blinking in the face of despair, in what at times seems like a hopeless fight for justice and equity. And the end makes no compromises.
But the pay-off is a vivid re-creation of the old New York City (maybe not so different, sadly, than the one we know today) and of the people struggling to survive in it. A story of the fight for power and dominance and of the ordinary people working against all odds just to survive. As always, Charyn’s writing is razor-sharp with not a wasted word.
I’m grateful I kept reading.
I will say that if I hadn’t won the book and had to write a review, I would have stopped early on because of animal cruelty. Consider this a trigger warning. Ordinarily, I would not have read past this but I’m glad I did, even though, as I said, there is much sadness in this book.
The book begins with Lionel Ravage, a landlord and businessman whose empty life is lit up when he falls in love with Manya. However, his is a blindly possessive and all-devouring love and he resents the son (Ben) Manya bears him because he cannot share his love.
However, he pours his resources into Ben—with the expectation that Ben will one day join his business. But Ben disappoints him by becoming a detective, whose search for a murderer, in partnership with Abraham Cahan, publisher of a progressive Jewish newspaper, brings him into confrontation with the corruption of the infamous Tammany Hall and the rest of New York City’s deeply corrupt government and judicial systems, as well as crime bosses. And it hits close to home as his father’s involvement in it all is revealed.
This is a story, with roots in historical reality, that is near and dear to me. Charyn creates this world of corruption, power, as well as the daily reality of the Jewish immigrants and their life in this time and play with compelling clarity.
There is no blinking in the face of despair, in what at times seems like a hopeless fight for justice and equity. And the end makes no compromises.
But the pay-off is a vivid re-creation of the old New York City (maybe not so different, sadly, than the one we know today) and of the people struggling to survive in it. A story of the fight for power and dominance and of the ordinary people working against all odds just to survive. As always, Charyn’s writing is razor-sharp with not a wasted word.
I’m grateful I kept reading.
June 23, 2023
I am perhaps the least likely reader for this novel, completely ignorant of the historical setting, and being someone who has read some noir classics but not widely or deeply. But, I have experienced this with Charyn before, reading his Cesare, a dark novel set in WWII Germany. I scramble after reading, searching online and learning the history behind the fiction, grasping to understand the interface between fact and informed fantasy.
Lionel Ravage is well named. He bears the ravaging scars of fire on his face, and he uses his power to reward or murder as he wills. He has loved twice: his feral yellow cat, horribly murdered, and the blonde beauty Manya, who bore his son. He hated that son, Ben, because Manya loved him. He inherited the business built by his father, who hung the sign Ravage & Son, now an ominous portent of Lionel’s relationship with Ben.
The publisher of a progressive Jewish newspaper, Abraham Cahan, discovered Ben, an abused boy in a dismal school, and paid for his Harvard education. Ben disappointed him by becoming a detective, working to wipe out the crime bosses…including his father. Cahan defends the powerless against the corrupt powerful courts, police, and Tammany Hall. Cahan and Ben are at heart idealists who defend the powerless. They both seek the man who is murdering women, and try to help a woman whose daughter was kidnapped. Still, Ben is snared by hate as surely as his father was.
The Jewish immigrant community of New York City’s Lower East Side consisted of earlier German immigrants, now wealthy and powerful, and the more recent East European immigrants living in the teeming ghetto–in Lionel Ravage’s slums–the streets rampant with crime. The Russian Jews were held accountable for the city’s crimes. The German Jews organized the Kehilla to police the streets. Ben had joined the Kehilla.
Colorful characters include the feared Monk Eastman with his flock of canaries and the actress Clara Karp who delighted audiences with her Hamlet and loves only Ben. Along with Cahan, they are inspired by historical people.
It’s a dark and gritty tale from over a hundred years ago, without a pretty ending. Charyn’s signature style punches like bullets. The political machinations are serpentine, ensnaring society’s most vulnerable, the influential players vying for power, dealing death. Ben survives, ravaged, but alive.
Thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
Lionel Ravage is well named. He bears the ravaging scars of fire on his face, and he uses his power to reward or murder as he wills. He has loved twice: his feral yellow cat, horribly murdered, and the blonde beauty Manya, who bore his son. He hated that son, Ben, because Manya loved him. He inherited the business built by his father, who hung the sign Ravage & Son, now an ominous portent of Lionel’s relationship with Ben.
The publisher of a progressive Jewish newspaper, Abraham Cahan, discovered Ben, an abused boy in a dismal school, and paid for his Harvard education. Ben disappointed him by becoming a detective, working to wipe out the crime bosses…including his father. Cahan defends the powerless against the corrupt powerful courts, police, and Tammany Hall. Cahan and Ben are at heart idealists who defend the powerless. They both seek the man who is murdering women, and try to help a woman whose daughter was kidnapped. Still, Ben is snared by hate as surely as his father was.
The Jewish immigrant community of New York City’s Lower East Side consisted of earlier German immigrants, now wealthy and powerful, and the more recent East European immigrants living in the teeming ghetto–in Lionel Ravage’s slums–the streets rampant with crime. The Russian Jews were held accountable for the city’s crimes. The German Jews organized the Kehilla to police the streets. Ben had joined the Kehilla.
Colorful characters include the feared Monk Eastman with his flock of canaries and the actress Clara Karp who delighted audiences with her Hamlet and loves only Ben. Along with Cahan, they are inspired by historical people.
It’s a dark and gritty tale from over a hundred years ago, without a pretty ending. Charyn’s signature style punches like bullets. The political machinations are serpentine, ensnaring society’s most vulnerable, the influential players vying for power, dealing death. Ben survives, ravaged, but alive.
Thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
February 16, 2025
Ein Panorama des jüdischen Verbrechens in Manhattan zur Jahrhundertwende des 20. Jahrhunderts - Grausam und dramatisch. Der Plot erfordert einiges an Konzentration hat sich mir aber trotzdem nicht so recht erschlossen. Hätte von einem Glossar profitiert. Atmosphärisch sehr dicht und mit vielen originellen Vignetten, aber ohne großartige Erklärungen. Hat mich ein wenig an den Stil von James Ellroy erinnert. 3.5 Sterne.
November 9, 2025
16% gelesen. Es hat mich nicht angesprochen. Zuviel Gewalt und Testosteron.
February 19, 2024
I know he's a famous author but it just didn't appeal to me. It sounded good but I just didnt enjoy it.
October 3, 2023
I kind of hated this book. The scenes on the Lower East Side of the early 1900's were engaging. The characters ranged from absurd to unintelligible. I forced myself to read through to the end, and then had to forgive myself for doing so.
November 8, 2023
This is one of those books where there is a significant disconnect between how good the book is and how much I actually liked it. This was significantly, um, nastier than what I might enjoy, though well written nonetheless. Sort of a more visceral and gross version of the Gangs of New York and its ilk.
The book fully advertises itself as a Noir and that’s accurate. It’s a good story but very violent, and includes far too much torture and sexual violence for my liking. The story itself is a good one, focused specifically on the Jewish are of the city and the lives of its citizens, while also taking a broader look at the issues plaguing the city as a whole at the time.
I wish the story had been less depressing, particularly regarding the fate of the principal characters, but it’s compelling and well written.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
The book fully advertises itself as a Noir and that’s accurate. It’s a good story but very violent, and includes far too much torture and sexual violence for my liking. The story itself is a good one, focused specifically on the Jewish are of the city and the lives of its citizens, while also taking a broader look at the issues plaguing the city as a whole at the time.
I wish the story had been less depressing, particularly regarding the fate of the principal characters, but it’s compelling and well written.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
January 4, 2025
5 star rating
My Review:
I hated reading it! That's an odd thing to say about a book that I am giving 5 stars. Jerome Charyn dragged me kicking and screaming through the hellish landscape that is his version of Manhattan's Lower East Side during the very beginning of the 1900's. The world he builds is dark, violent and very scary. I felt like I was walking beside his fully fleshed out characters trying to keep my head down, terrified to interact with the bad element scattered like landmines throughout this book. I went through a slew of emotions line to line, chapter to chapter.
This one was a far cry from the cozy mysteries and popcorn thrillers I was reading at the time. I read this quite a while ago and it has stayed with me. If you are looking to challenge yourself outside your usual genre and want to be gripped by the beautiful, sad and scary prose of a fantastic book give Ravage & Son a try.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for free access to this book in exchange for an honest review.
Blurb:
Ravage & Son reflects the lost world of Manhattan’s Lower East Side—the cradle of Jewish immigration during the first years of the twentieth century—in a dark mirror.
Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, serves as the conscience of the Jewish ghetto teeming with rogue cops and swindlers. He rescues Ben Ravage, an orphan, from a trade school and sends him off to Harvard to earn a law degree. But upon his return, Ben rejects the chance to escape his gritty origins and instead becomes a detective for the Kehilla, a quixotic gang backed by wealthy uptown patrons to help the police rid the Lower East Side of criminals. Charged with rooting out the Jewish “Mr. Hyde,” a half-mad villain who attacks the prostitutes of Allen Street, Ben discovers that his fate is irrevocably tied to that of this violent, sinister man.
A lurid tale of revenge, this wildly evocative, suspenseful noir is vintage Jerome Charyn.
My Review:
I hated reading it! That's an odd thing to say about a book that I am giving 5 stars. Jerome Charyn dragged me kicking and screaming through the hellish landscape that is his version of Manhattan's Lower East Side during the very beginning of the 1900's. The world he builds is dark, violent and very scary. I felt like I was walking beside his fully fleshed out characters trying to keep my head down, terrified to interact with the bad element scattered like landmines throughout this book. I went through a slew of emotions line to line, chapter to chapter.
This one was a far cry from the cozy mysteries and popcorn thrillers I was reading at the time. I read this quite a while ago and it has stayed with me. If you are looking to challenge yourself outside your usual genre and want to be gripped by the beautiful, sad and scary prose of a fantastic book give Ravage & Son a try.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for free access to this book in exchange for an honest review.
Blurb:
Ravage & Son reflects the lost world of Manhattan’s Lower East Side—the cradle of Jewish immigration during the first years of the twentieth century—in a dark mirror.
Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, serves as the conscience of the Jewish ghetto teeming with rogue cops and swindlers. He rescues Ben Ravage, an orphan, from a trade school and sends him off to Harvard to earn a law degree. But upon his return, Ben rejects the chance to escape his gritty origins and instead becomes a detective for the Kehilla, a quixotic gang backed by wealthy uptown patrons to help the police rid the Lower East Side of criminals. Charged with rooting out the Jewish “Mr. Hyde,” a half-mad villain who attacks the prostitutes of Allen Street, Ben discovers that his fate is irrevocably tied to that of this violent, sinister man.
A lurid tale of revenge, this wildly evocative, suspenseful noir is vintage Jerome Charyn.
September 21, 2023
Happy Monday! And Happy Pub Day to Ravage and Son!!☀️
I hope you’re starting your week off with all the coffee you need and all the books that keep you up at night!
Ravage and Son is Jerome Charyn’s newest book. We first were introduced to this author when we read Big Red a reimagined historical fiction about Rita Hayworth!
We are happy to share with you Ravage and Son! This is a darker story, set in early 20th century Manhattan. Here is more info about Jerome Charyn’s newest book!
“Ravage & Son reflects the lost world of Manhattan’s Lower East Side—the cradle of Jewish immigration during the first years of the twentieth century—in a dark mirror.
Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, serves as the conscience of the Jewish ghetto teeming with rogue cops and swindlers. He rescues Ben Ravage, an orphan, from a trade school and sends him off to Harvard to earn a law degree. But upon his return, Ben rejects the chance to escape his gritty origins and instead becomes a detective for the Kehilla, a quixotic gang backed by wealthy uptown patrons to help the police rid the Lower East Side of criminals. Charged with rooting out the Jewish “Mr. Hyde,” a half-mad villain who attacks the prostitutes of Allen Street, Ben discovers that his fate is irrevocably tied to that of this violent, sinister man.
A lurid tale of revenge, this wildly evocative, suspenseful noir is vintage Jerome Charyn.”
What new book are you excited to read this week?🧜🏼♀️🌺
I hope you’re starting your week off with all the coffee you need and all the books that keep you up at night!
Ravage and Son is Jerome Charyn’s newest book. We first were introduced to this author when we read Big Red a reimagined historical fiction about Rita Hayworth!
We are happy to share with you Ravage and Son! This is a darker story, set in early 20th century Manhattan. Here is more info about Jerome Charyn’s newest book!
“Ravage & Son reflects the lost world of Manhattan’s Lower East Side—the cradle of Jewish immigration during the first years of the twentieth century—in a dark mirror.
Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, serves as the conscience of the Jewish ghetto teeming with rogue cops and swindlers. He rescues Ben Ravage, an orphan, from a trade school and sends him off to Harvard to earn a law degree. But upon his return, Ben rejects the chance to escape his gritty origins and instead becomes a detective for the Kehilla, a quixotic gang backed by wealthy uptown patrons to help the police rid the Lower East Side of criminals. Charged with rooting out the Jewish “Mr. Hyde,” a half-mad villain who attacks the prostitutes of Allen Street, Ben discovers that his fate is irrevocably tied to that of this violent, sinister man.
A lurid tale of revenge, this wildly evocative, suspenseful noir is vintage Jerome Charyn.”
What new book are you excited to read this week?🧜🏼♀️🌺
November 11, 2023
Set in the Jewish Lower East Side of Manhattan not long after the turn of the twentieth century, Abraham Cahan, the legendary editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, rescues Ben Ravage, a boy living at a trade school and home for orphaned boys and sends him to Harvard, where he earns a law degree. Ben, rather than joining a law firm, returns to the neighborhood and becomes a detective for the Kehilla, a Robin Hood sort of gang fighting corruption and violent crime.
Ben is the illegitimate son of Lionel Ravage, a cruel, swindling landlord and businessman who lives uptown among the other wealthy German Jews, including Jacob Schiff (who was in real life a principal at the banking house of Kuhn, Loeb and a prominent figure in charitable enterprises) who in this story operates various businesses, not all above board. The older Ravage lives a dark life making his downtown rounds, but he falls in love with and seduces the beautiful but impoverished Manya, who gives birth to Ben.
The story moves back and forth between Cahan, who is fighting F.W. Woolworth's plan to raze buildings on Grand Street in order to build another five and ten store, which Cahan believes will change the character of the neighborhood and lead to gentrification that will drive out the poor and destroy a traditional mode of commerce, the conflicts between the two Ravages, Schiff's enterprises, and Clara Karp, a fictional Yiddish theatre actress of tremendous influence who appears as a female Hamlet, and alongside the real-life king of Yiddish theater, Jacob Adler, known for his King Lear.
This is a complex and picaresque tale, violent to the point of gruesome, including some very graphic details I could certainly have done without, though they are important to understanding the characters. This Lower East Side is dark, and far beyond any tale of poverty, squalid living and working conditions, the press of Tammany Hall corruption, and the spread of vice, drugs, and violence against the innocent and often illiterate inhabitants of the area. Despite this darkness, this is still a fascinating portrait of a way of life that is now long gone, and barely remembered except in the memories of the aging grandchildren of the inhabitants of that era.
Ben is the illegitimate son of Lionel Ravage, a cruel, swindling landlord and businessman who lives uptown among the other wealthy German Jews, including Jacob Schiff (who was in real life a principal at the banking house of Kuhn, Loeb and a prominent figure in charitable enterprises) who in this story operates various businesses, not all above board. The older Ravage lives a dark life making his downtown rounds, but he falls in love with and seduces the beautiful but impoverished Manya, who gives birth to Ben.
The story moves back and forth between Cahan, who is fighting F.W. Woolworth's plan to raze buildings on Grand Street in order to build another five and ten store, which Cahan believes will change the character of the neighborhood and lead to gentrification that will drive out the poor and destroy a traditional mode of commerce, the conflicts between the two Ravages, Schiff's enterprises, and Clara Karp, a fictional Yiddish theatre actress of tremendous influence who appears as a female Hamlet, and alongside the real-life king of Yiddish theater, Jacob Adler, known for his King Lear.
This is a complex and picaresque tale, violent to the point of gruesome, including some very graphic details I could certainly have done without, though they are important to understanding the characters. This Lower East Side is dark, and far beyond any tale of poverty, squalid living and working conditions, the press of Tammany Hall corruption, and the spread of vice, drugs, and violence against the innocent and often illiterate inhabitants of the area. Despite this darkness, this is still a fascinating portrait of a way of life that is now long gone, and barely remembered except in the memories of the aging grandchildren of the inhabitants of that era.
October 3, 2023
Jerome Charyn has made a career of nudging rogues into respectability, sometimes famous rogues we already loved, and other times those he conjures, like Isaac Sidel. Ravage & Son is a kind of elegy to the worlds he shaped all those years, not a last statement (given that Charyn writes about a book a year, you can be certain his next one is already being reviewed by the publisher), but a career note all the same, Sidel skipping backward into history, into Charyn’s beloved, perennially ravaged New York City at the turn of the previous century.
The title refers, technically, to a different set of Ravages, although it is a family saga all the same, a story of revenge, of a deep yearning for the world to make sense, to reflect how the characters within it see themselves, although they’ll always settle for the perceptions they invariably conjure. It’s a story of immigrants shaping the landscape around them when no one else can be bothered, of the horrors they inhabit because they have to, or have simply grown so used to they can’t imagine anything better (different being abhorrent, since they will lose their roles in society).
It’s a story of the real world crusading, communal journalist Abraham Cahan, who fought to keep Woolworth out of the neighborhood. It’s littered with all Charyn’s favorite tics. If you’ve read Charyn before you’ll settle right into them, except at its best the results verge away from them. And then settle back in.
This book is a tragedy. It certainly doesn’t have a happy ending, although it’s perfectly symmetrical. It’s the most deliberate storytelling I can think of from all the books I’ve been privileged to read from Charyn over the years. If nothing else, for this reader this is a welcome work of fiction, a window into the real world as only Jerome Charyn has been capable, something he hadn’t seen before.
Bravo.
The title refers, technically, to a different set of Ravages, although it is a family saga all the same, a story of revenge, of a deep yearning for the world to make sense, to reflect how the characters within it see themselves, although they’ll always settle for the perceptions they invariably conjure. It’s a story of immigrants shaping the landscape around them when no one else can be bothered, of the horrors they inhabit because they have to, or have simply grown so used to they can’t imagine anything better (different being abhorrent, since they will lose their roles in society).
It’s a story of the real world crusading, communal journalist Abraham Cahan, who fought to keep Woolworth out of the neighborhood. It’s littered with all Charyn’s favorite tics. If you’ve read Charyn before you’ll settle right into them, except at its best the results verge away from them. And then settle back in.
This book is a tragedy. It certainly doesn’t have a happy ending, although it’s perfectly symmetrical. It’s the most deliberate storytelling I can think of from all the books I’ve been privileged to read from Charyn over the years. If nothing else, for this reader this is a welcome work of fiction, a window into the real world as only Jerome Charyn has been capable, something he hadn’t seen before.
Bravo.
August 31, 2023
It Was Worth Staying Up All Night with This Amazing Book
Jerome Charyn is one of my favorite authors. He has now done it again—disturbed my sleep! When I open one of his many widely-acclaimed historical novels, his style grabs me and will not let me go. They are all extraordinary page-turners. In this new novel, Ravage & Son, he delivers even more dramatically. The noir thriller features a Jewish Jack-the-Ripper set in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the cradle of Jewish immigration. No one can bring that world to life better than Charyn, born into poverty. His parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe, and his childhood neighborhood was rife with crime.
The story stars Abraham Cahan, the illustrious founder of The Forward, and his role in the birth of the Bintel Brief, which became a staple of immigrant life. It was the turn of the 20th century, and immigration was surging, as were crime and corruption. The Jewish criminal activity of the day grew out of poverty, with prejudiced police claiming that all Jews were sneak thieves and pickpockets. The prevailing attitude ignored the havoc of poverty and the work that Cahan and others were doing to help mitigate the situation and, in the process, try against all odds to reveal what turns out to be the shocking identity of the serial killer.
I was gratified that this book has a real buzz. For one, Forword—the same newspaper featured in the book!—loved the story and their part in it, and I loved watching the fascinating interviews with Charyn I found on his website. I challenge you to start reading and not want to keep going! I plan to reread Ravage & Son—as soon as I catch up on last night’s sleep.
Jerome Charyn is one of my favorite authors. He has now done it again—disturbed my sleep! When I open one of his many widely-acclaimed historical novels, his style grabs me and will not let me go. They are all extraordinary page-turners. In this new novel, Ravage & Son, he delivers even more dramatically. The noir thriller features a Jewish Jack-the-Ripper set in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the cradle of Jewish immigration. No one can bring that world to life better than Charyn, born into poverty. His parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe, and his childhood neighborhood was rife with crime.
The story stars Abraham Cahan, the illustrious founder of The Forward, and his role in the birth of the Bintel Brief, which became a staple of immigrant life. It was the turn of the 20th century, and immigration was surging, as were crime and corruption. The Jewish criminal activity of the day grew out of poverty, with prejudiced police claiming that all Jews were sneak thieves and pickpockets. The prevailing attitude ignored the havoc of poverty and the work that Cahan and others were doing to help mitigate the situation and, in the process, try against all odds to reveal what turns out to be the shocking identity of the serial killer.
I was gratified that this book has a real buzz. For one, Forword—the same newspaper featured in the book!—loved the story and their part in it, and I loved watching the fascinating interviews with Charyn I found on his website. I challenge you to start reading and not want to keep going! I plan to reread Ravage & Son—as soon as I catch up on last night’s sleep.
August 21, 2023
Enter the dark and murky world of Manhattan's Lower East Side in the early twentieth century through the talented pen of Jerome Charyn and his novel, Ravage & Son.
Lionel Ravage, a ruthless landlord in the Lower East Side, wields his power over the community, metering out rewards and punishments as he sees fit. But he loves his beloved cat and Manya with such intensity, that when Manya bears him a son, he can't help but despise the child who captures a part of her heart.
Abraham Cahan, editor of the the Jewish Daily Forward, rescues Ben from a trade school and pays his way to earn a law degree from Harvard. But Ben's ties to his community run deep. He returns to the Lower East Side as a detective to help the police rid the community of criminals. As he works to root out a half-mad villain torturing the prostitutes of Allen Street, Ben discovers his fate will always be tied to this Jewish "Mr. Hyde."
With Ravage & Son, Charyn delivers an edgy and suspenseful historical novel of crime, corruption, and antisemitism. His keen eye for detail brings the story to life, and the reader is drawn into the world of Lionel and Ben Savage as if they stood on the streets of the Lower East Side. As with all of Charyn's novels, you can't rush through Ravage & Son. It is a story you must experience with every dark turn as the characters, whether you love them or despise them, display life in its rawest form. Ravage & Son is classic Charyn, and his fans--new and old--won't be disappointed.
Lionel Ravage, a ruthless landlord in the Lower East Side, wields his power over the community, metering out rewards and punishments as he sees fit. But he loves his beloved cat and Manya with such intensity, that when Manya bears him a son, he can't help but despise the child who captures a part of her heart.
Abraham Cahan, editor of the the Jewish Daily Forward, rescues Ben from a trade school and pays his way to earn a law degree from Harvard. But Ben's ties to his community run deep. He returns to the Lower East Side as a detective to help the police rid the community of criminals. As he works to root out a half-mad villain torturing the prostitutes of Allen Street, Ben discovers his fate will always be tied to this Jewish "Mr. Hyde."
With Ravage & Son, Charyn delivers an edgy and suspenseful historical novel of crime, corruption, and antisemitism. His keen eye for detail brings the story to life, and the reader is drawn into the world of Lionel and Ben Savage as if they stood on the streets of the Lower East Side. As with all of Charyn's novels, you can't rush through Ravage & Son. It is a story you must experience with every dark turn as the characters, whether you love them or despise them, display life in its rawest form. Ravage & Son is classic Charyn, and his fans--new and old--won't be disappointed.
September 7, 2023
Ravage & Son is about Jewish life in and around the the Lower East Side of New York City, at the turn of the 20th century. At that time, there was a lot of poverty, and violence . There were the newly arriving Russian immigrants, and, the more established German Jews, who escaped the LES, and sent their enforcers into the ghetto, to control the chaos there (and, to protect their own reputations that they worked so hard to establish).
With this picture in mind, Ravage & Son by Jerome Charyn is a turn of the century Jewish mobster story.
It is packed with the challenges immigrants to NYC faced. Of course, it would be impossible to depict Jewish life in NY at this time, without including the power of the Jewish daily newspaper, The Forward, Abe Kahan, and his column A Bintel Brief.
Take a trip to the lower East side, Ellis Island, and saloons of 1900’s NY with Charyn’s latest release.
With this picture in mind, Ravage & Son by Jerome Charyn is a turn of the century Jewish mobster story.
It is packed with the challenges immigrants to NYC faced. Of course, it would be impossible to depict Jewish life in NY at this time, without including the power of the Jewish daily newspaper, The Forward, Abe Kahan, and his column A Bintel Brief.
Take a trip to the lower East side, Ellis Island, and saloons of 1900’s NY with Charyn’s latest release.
September 3, 2023
The novel “Ravage & Son” is best described as “vintage noir”. It’s about the confluence of power and poverty of immigrant Jews on the Lower East Side in the early 1900s and contains several historical figures like Abraham Cahan, one of the founders of the Forward. The writing is compelling, the story engaging, and I really liked the narrator, Stephen Jay Cohen, but I’m certain I would have gotten more out of reading than I did listening.
4 ⭐️ for the story
3 ⭐️ for audio book
3.5 ⭐️ overall
Thank you to NetGalley for my review copy.
4 ⭐️ for the story
3 ⭐️ for audio book
3.5 ⭐️ overall
Thank you to NetGalley for my review copy.
October 5, 2023
3.5 stars. I loved the setting, the interweaving of historical figures and events, and some of the set pieces were brilliantly written…but the main story goes over the top for shock value, and the fictional characters—however colorful—never go beyond caricature. Read Irving Howe’s World of Our Fathers for a truly vibrant picture of the Jewish Lower East Side…and nothing matches E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime for a novel that brilliantly combines fact and fiction into a creative and compelling new kind of narrative. That is what Charyn seems to be aiming for, but he unfortunately falls short.
October 17, 2023
I love historical novels. I enjoyed the lower east side setting of the book as well as the colorful vocabulary. However, the characters were more caricatures, and I found that I didn’t care enough about them. I finished the book nevertheless . The ending was a dud.
September 17, 2023
Not a spare word in this tough and cruel story. The book centers primarily on tough Jewish immigrants and their stories of survival. Characters are sharp and brutal. The story line is dark and hopeless. There’s not a happy ending in sight, but the tale is vivid with details and characters. It is a story that grabs - one can’t look away.
February 22, 2024
Jewish history is filled with fascinating tales. Sometimes, though, it takes fiction to make these stories come alive: a novel can fill in thoughts and emotions to which historians rarely have access. That’s shown in two recent novels; “Our Little Histories” by Janice Weizman (The Toby Press) offers both a personal and public view of more than a century of Jewish history, while “Ravage and Son” by Jerome Charyn (Bellevue Literary Press) focuses on the emotions and actions of those living in New York City at the turn of the 20th century.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...
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