Samuel Orntiz's novel captures the pageant of immigrant life in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the years straddling the turn of the 20th century. The Jewish experience is presented in vivid detail by the ambitious and clever narrator, Meyer Hirsch. Starting off as a boy in a street gang, Hirsch ascends the ladder of power through all means open to him, legitimate and otherwise, to eventually become the caricatured bigwig of the title. A stream of consciousness device is used sparingly and effectively as Ornitz's characters confront the issues of poverty, politics, religion and love.
About a half-century later Mordecai Richler would mine this same vein, but in Montreal, in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Haunch Paunch and Jowl is a worthy ancestor.
About a half-century later Mordecai Richler would mine this same vein, but in Montreal, in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Haunch Paunch and Jowl is a worthy ancestor.
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