The dark lady from Belorusse

Description:

How to describe Faigele? A recent immigrant from Russia, the wife of an immigrant fur worker, a mother, a housewife, a greenhorn - and an enchantress of such striking beauty that she had the Bronx at her feet. The local postmaster consoled her with hot tea in his office every morning when she came with "Baby" Jerome, hoping for a letter from her brother in war-torn Russia. An admirer enlisted five-year-old Baby to help him produce a forged letter to ease her worry. But it was her dentist, a blackmarketer on the side, who introduced her to the circle of Bronx politicians who made her the dealer of their weekly poker game. Beautiful, passionate, worlds above words like "naive or sophisticated," Faigele has been blessed by her son, a rarely gifted writer who vividly recaptures this astonishing woman in her turbulent setting.

subjects: Social life and customs,  Family,  American Novelists,  Intellectual life,  Homes and haunts,  Jewish families,  Belarusian Jews,  Family relationships,  Childhood and youth,  Quartier du Bronx,  Biographies,  Résidences et lieux familiers,  Romanciers américains,  Russian Jews,  Immigrants, united states,  Mothers and sons,  Jews, united states, biography,  New york (state), social life and customs,  Jews, russian

People: Jerome Charyn

Places: New York,  New York (State),  Bronx (New York, N.Y.)

Times: 20th century