My own ground

Description:

A brilliant, under appreciated account of the struggles against poverty in a setting where the rawest capitalism prevails. The author described it as a retelling of the story of Jacob and Esau, the latter reincarnated as a shrewd pimp and the former (perhaps) a communist agitator or the narrator, named Jake. He tells the story in middle age, after the Holocaust. But the story itself is set in his youth, and may be about the Hasidic concept of "forcing the end," the end being the Holocaust. Nissenson writes what might be called a noir crime novel, one of the most original American art forms. Death and evil are not eliminated, nor is the community cleansed. But perseverance itself is heroic, if not redemptive.

subjects: Fiction,  Fiction in English,  Jewish men,  Jews,  Lower East Side,  noir,  biblical allusion,  Fiction, jewish,  Fiction, coming of age,  Fiction, historical, general,  Jews, fiction,  New york (n.y.), fiction,  Fiction, general

Places: Lower East Side (New York, N.Y.),  Elmira NY,  New York,  New York (State)

Times: earlier 20th century