Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler

by Mendele Mocher Sforim, S.Y. Abramovitsh

The founding father of modern Yiddish fiction, Abramovitsh created a rich tapestry of small-town Jewish life in the Russian Pale of Settlement with stories full of humor, heart, and homespun truths. Here are two of his best-known and best-loved "Fishke the Lame" and "Benjamin the Third."


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Fiction, Judaica, Jewish

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Mendele Mocher Sforim (Yiddish: מענדעלע מוכר ספֿרים‎, Hebrew: מנדלי מוכר ספרים‎‎, also known as Moykher, Sfarim; lit. "Mendele the book peddler"), born Sholem Yankev Abramovich (Yiddish: שלום יעקב אַבראַמאָװיטש‎, Russian: Соломон Моисеевич Абрамович – Solomon Moiseyevich Abramovich) or S. J. Abramowitch, was a Jewish author and one of the founders of modern Yiddish and Hebrew literature.

Reviews

[Lizzy B]

This is one of those books where the translators’ skills are really shown off. Multiple colloquialisms and dialects of Yiddish turning into multiple 19th-century American ones? Impressive!

Personally, I would rather have had the more commonly-known Hebrew/Yiddish phrasings remain untranslated - nearly everything was given in English, and it would take some extra work to figure out that, say, the “day’s first blessing” was probably the Modeh Ani.

I loved learning about not just the Jewish stuff that’s familiar today, but also the traditions that were more unique to that time; e.g., what was eaten for fancy meals, the importance of the sauna.

Story-wise, I liked how Fishke the Lame wrapped up although the middle laid the woe on a little too thick. Benjamin the Third was fun to read after having read Benjamin of Tudela, unsurprisingly, and also Zakhor, as it helped explain the odd mix of medieval myth and 19th-century European history that the characters believed in.

[Perlie]

I only read the Benjamin the 3rd, after having heard some of the translation of Fishke the Krummeh, I knew it wasn't for me.
But Benjamin's story was a combination of laugh-out-loud funny, poignant moments, sad moments, and the realization that many of the quirks of personality and community that existed at the time of the work's composition, still exist today. I loved Hillel Halkin's translation, and my only complaint is that the town names should have been translated as well, because that plays part of the satire Abramovitsh is crafting.

[Jay Resnick]

Enjoyed this immensely, especially Mendele’s depiction of the different kinds of beggars.

[lifeisjustablurblog]

Read first few chaps

[Ella]

only read fishke but it went hard

[Isaac]

So much weird magic in everyday pauperhood. Zany characters risen from mud. The epitome and the parody of the shtetl simultaneously. So fun to time travel.

[Elan]

The introductory essay and the Hillel Halkin translation of Benjamin the Third are great. The translation of Fishke the Lame (much of it written out in southern-style dialect to represent provincial Yiddish) was so distracting that I gave up and ordered a different translation. It’s really 5 stars for Benjamin, 1 star for the fishke.