Tuesday, March 19, 2024 -
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The Frozen Rabbi, thawed

What happens when a cryogenically preserved rabbi is discovered by a randy fifteen year old, and then subsequently defrosted when a freak electric storm hits suburban Memphis?

The intriguing premise of Steve Stern’s fantastical The Frozen Rabbi is quickly eclipsed by a saga traversing three continents and spanning six generations, each accompanied by their unusual family heirloom, Rabbi Eliezer ben Zephyr, a kabbalistic sage encased in a block of ice.

How this treasure (or is it a curse, wonder a few characters and the reader at times) came to be is told through a narrative bouncing back and forth between the present — thawed rabbi turned fraudulent guru — and the past — the never-ending travail that is the Jewish people.

But Stern’s structure doesn’t consistently work throughout the book. A common problem with using the parallel storytelling method is that readers often find themselves identifying with or drawn in by one of the plots, and less so by the other. In this case, we found ourselves much more engaged in the characters and stories of the “past” chapters, and rifling through the 1999 ones, which are dominated by Bernie, the sixth generation who, in discovering the rabbi, himself begins to experience spiritual flights of fancy.

And Stern fails his own structure toward the end of the novel when the story is dominated by Ruby, Bernie’s grandfather who recorded for posterity in Yiddish the tale of the frozen rabbi, and the reader almost forgets the modern-day storyline entirely.

Rather than the plot itself, the language and details are what make Stern’s story. His patois (Yosl Cholera or the mafia-esque Jewish Black Hand) is reminiscent of Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. Stern’s retelling of shtetl life is so far from the Vishniac world of innocent-eyed cheder students it at times seems to take place in an alternate history, much like Chabon’s novel. These shtetl streets are filled with wastrels, rapists, poverty and excrement (both human and equine). The same goes for Stern’s portrayal of the Lower East Side, only now there are con artists, gangsters and teamsters too.

Even Israel, where Stern goes in the form of Yez and Yig, two Lodz-born Zionist fighters, seemingly devoid of intellectual thought, isn’t presented as an antidote to Jewish misery. His characters there aren’t the stuff of inspirational Zionist stories; no, those are the people in the background. Stern’s characters are murderous Revisionists, friends of the Stern Gang and behind countless bloody attacks.

Though the storytelling isn’t always consistently engaging, and sometimes the language and characters are so far-fetched it borders on the ridiculous, The Frozen Rabbi is a wonderfully funny and imaginative novel that opens the door to the underbelly of an often-idealized world.

Have you finished any interesting books recently? Do share! We’re always on the lookout for recommendations!




One thought on “The Frozen Rabbi, thawed

  1. nathan rabin

    i just picked up “in the garden of beasts”, by the same guy who wrote devil in the white city. it’s about nazi germany before the war. non fiction, written as a novel. great writer.

    Reply

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