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outcolder's review against another edition
4.0
One schande after another! Actually quite gripping, I had been a bit nervous that there might be too much commerce, but instead I found the story of his rise in the needle trades as exciting as the chapters about talmud schools and infatuations with modern women. Cahan sees the hypocrisy in everyone but still manages to make every character someone I want to spend time with... even grasping Mrs. Chaiken. The Catskills chapter moved me a great deal, and set me to wondering about my grandparents...
Cahan originally wrote this for McClure’s and sometimes that was a little grating. Writing for the gentiles, we are left to guess what are the “ring-shaped rolls” he bought in the Jewish bakery. Seriously? It’s hard to imagine there was a time when English speakers may not have heard of a bagel. There were other, more subtle instances where I thought had he been writing for a Jewish audience this scene would have been different. But I guess when Cahan wrote for Jews, he wrote in yiddish. So the flavor isn’t as heavy here as in some other books about the Jewish lower east side. The end is also less than satisfying but all in all this is a fun visit to that time and place.
I also thought one could give it a queer reading. The main character has several crappy, doomed from the start infatuations with women, but some of his relationships with men are far more spiritual. I can imagine him sending for Naphthali and then having him as a boarder, then he wouldn’t be lonely. Or what happened to his yiddish theater buddy? That guy is definitely gay. It’s the attention that other men receive that causes him to make life-changing decisions but all the women he claims to desire are out of reach... except for the prostitutes. I know Cahan is saying that being an orphan, coming from extreme poverty, and committing that hard to business can leave you lonely in a world where you suspect everyone ... but one could also read another, less explicit reason for Levinsky’s deep sense of loss and longing for those days bent over the talmud.
Levinsky is desperate to impress the people he considers “aristocrats.” As long as he is Antomir, that means he either must excel at talmud, or he must go to college and become a more modern kind of scholar. In the Babylon of late 19th Century New York, he must make money to “show them.” He never really does know what it is he really wants. I often think that about people bent on getting rich, although the ones I meet are not likely to “succeed” like Levinsky, still I often have the impression that they have chosen business or finance because that’s what’s expected, but there is no other dream they’re giving up, it’s just that their dreams are so pathetic: get rich. And then? Na, ja, spend it. Sure there are people who care about a product or service and then lo and behold they make a successful business out of it, that’s not what I mean. I mean young people whose only vision for their future revolves around consuming status symbols.
Cahan originally wrote this for McClure’s and sometimes that was a little grating. Writing for the gentiles, we are left to guess what are the “ring-shaped rolls” he bought in the Jewish bakery. Seriously? It’s hard to imagine there was a time when English speakers may not have heard of a bagel. There were other, more subtle instances where I thought had he been writing for a Jewish audience this scene would have been different. But I guess when Cahan wrote for Jews, he wrote in yiddish. So the flavor isn’t as heavy here as in some other books about the Jewish lower east side. The end is also less than satisfying but all in all this is a fun visit to that time and place.
I also thought one could give it a queer reading. The main character has several crappy, doomed from the start infatuations with women, but some of his relationships with men are far more spiritual. I can imagine him sending for Naphthali and then having him as a boarder, then he wouldn’t be lonely. Or what happened to his yiddish theater buddy? That guy is definitely gay. It’s the attention that other men receive that causes him to make life-changing decisions but all the women he claims to desire are out of reach... except for the prostitutes. I know Cahan is saying that being an orphan, coming from extreme poverty, and committing that hard to business can leave you lonely in a world where you suspect everyone ... but one could also read another, less explicit reason for Levinsky’s deep sense of loss and longing for those days bent over the talmud.
Levinsky is desperate to impress the people he considers “aristocrats.” As long as he is Antomir, that means he either must excel at talmud, or he must go to college and become a more modern kind of scholar. In the Babylon of late 19th Century New York, he must make money to “show them.” He never really does know what it is he really wants. I often think that about people bent on getting rich, although the ones I meet are not likely to “succeed” like Levinsky, still I often have the impression that they have chosen business or finance because that’s what’s expected, but there is no other dream they’re giving up, it’s just that their dreams are so pathetic: get rich. And then? Na, ja, spend it. Sure there are people who care about a product or service and then lo and behold they make a successful business out of it, that’s not what I mean. I mean young people whose only vision for their future revolves around consuming status symbols.
alanffm's review against another edition
4.0
An absolute must read for anyone interested in Jewish American literature. This rags-to-riches story flips many of the genre's tropes upside down while retaining an air of originality that --over one hundred years later -- remains fresh. Very important read for the study of Jewish history and American immigrant history.
the8th's review against another edition
2.0
characters bugged me, even david. liked the first bit best, before he had left russia.
erichguen's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
beccaalina's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
graywacke's review against another edition
5.0
41. The Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham Cahan
published: 1917
format: ~535 page ebook
acquired: 2014 from Project Gutenberg
read: Sep 8 - Oct 9
rating: 4½
I step into the WWI era of literature with a great deal of ignorance and find myself in the world of my ancestry. Cahan, a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in New York in 1882, captures a whole world of Jewish New York over a 30 year period of immigration and rebirth. He takes Dickens and Thackeray (or so he more or less claims) and creates history from first hand experience, and it’s moving to someone like me because this world is what four different parts of my family experienced (although not all in NY).
David Levinsky is an orphan and teenage Talmudic scholar who stumbles across a benefactor, a young female divorcee, who provides him with a ticket to America. He will arrive, and stumble and fall in so many different ways, each remarkably real. Discarding the Talmud and faith and even theism, he becomes through will and guts and luck someone who finds himself in the newpapers associated with “the Vanderbilts, the Goulds, the Rothschilds...by calling me ‘a fleecer of labor’ it placed me in their class. I felt in good company.”
Cahan was something of a leader in the Jewish socialist movement of the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. That he can write sympathetically of his capitalist hero, one who both fights and has a tolerance for socialists, is interesting and an expression perhaps of a wide experience and open mind.
There is a mixture of history and tragedy of sorts mixed. As Levinsky finds success, and reader gets a lesson on the evolution of Jewish clothing manufacture in American, he becomes a representation of the success of Jews in American with pride and also ambivalence. Listening to the Star-spangled Banner
The Dickens sense in the title is no accident. This is the only Cahan novel I know of, but it’s very well developed, entertaining, capturing many different worlds in both Russian and America. It’s long coming of age, and a full fictional autobiography, if you like, and one that clearly reflects Cahan’s own experience. Recommended to those interested in American Jewish heritage.
published: 1917
format: ~535 page ebook
acquired: 2014 from Project Gutenberg
read: Sep 8 - Oct 9
rating: 4½
I step into the WWI era of literature with a great deal of ignorance and find myself in the world of my ancestry. Cahan, a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in New York in 1882, captures a whole world of Jewish New York over a 30 year period of immigration and rebirth. He takes Dickens and Thackeray (or so he more or less claims) and creates history from first hand experience, and it’s moving to someone like me because this world is what four different parts of my family experienced (although not all in NY).
David Levinsky is an orphan and teenage Talmudic scholar who stumbles across a benefactor, a young female divorcee, who provides him with a ticket to America. He will arrive, and stumble and fall in so many different ways, each remarkably real. Discarding the Talmud and faith and even theism, he becomes through will and guts and luck someone who finds himself in the newpapers associated with “the Vanderbilts, the Goulds, the Rothschilds...by calling me ‘a fleecer of labor’ it placed me in their class. I felt in good company.”
Cahan was something of a leader in the Jewish socialist movement of the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. That he can write sympathetically of his capitalist hero, one who both fights and has a tolerance for socialists, is interesting and an expression perhaps of a wide experience and open mind.
There is a mixture of history and tragedy of sorts mixed. As Levinsky finds success, and reader gets a lesson on the evolution of Jewish clothing manufacture in American, he becomes a representation of the success of Jews in American with pride and also ambivalence. Listening to the Star-spangled Banner
There was the jingle of newly-acquired dollars in our applause. But there was something else in it as well. Many of those who were now paying tribute to the Stars and Stripes were listening to the tune with grave, solemn mien. It was as if they were saying: "We are not persecuted under this flag. At last we have found a home.”But what was the price. David will lose his culture, religion and in a way his soul. He has no family, few close friends despite extensive acquaintances, and is unable to find affection for women remotely appropriate for him. He will end up alone and unable, really, to understand why. A split of intellect from soul, or maybe of real and spiritual, a gain and a loss.
The Dickens sense in the title is no accident. This is the only Cahan novel I know of, but it’s very well developed, entertaining, capturing many different worlds in both Russian and America. It’s long coming of age, and a full fictional autobiography, if you like, and one that clearly reflects Cahan’s own experience. Recommended to those interested in American Jewish heritage.
vsobaka05's review against another edition
3.0
I really liked the style of writing and I wasn't bored in the book, but I despise David Levinsky himself. He is one of the most annoying and selfish characters ever put to paper and I spent most of the book wanting to slap him. For this reason, I cannot give it any more than three stars, even if he was meant to be characterized that way.
graceturley's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
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