His Master's Voice - Hardcover

Kotlowitz, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679408681 ISBN 13: 9780679408680

Publisher: Knopf, 1992

Synopsis

As the war rages in Europe, a disgruntled faction within Sigmud R. Safer's House of Israel congregation threatens to break away from the old timers and start a less stringent congregation of its own. By the author of Somewhere Else.

About this title

Reviews

Sigmund Safer is a cantor for a Baltimore congregation during WW II. He came from Poland not so many years before; what family he left back in Europe now is most certainly unrecoverable. With his wife and daughter, he lives peacefully--a Chevrolet, a paid-up mortgage, beloved tropical fish--cankered internally only by a personal lack of faith. Meanwhile, the congregation is embroiled in a schism, a possible breakup, presenting some economic decisions and moral gray areas. In contrast to Safer's moderation, the congregation's treasurer, Barney Fribush, is a rich vulgarian with appetites for life on every front. He develops as the cantor's alter ego, the connections between them unlikely but durable. Even as Barney is ultimately felled by colon cancer, the cantor suffers a heart attack that hospitalizes them both at the same time. The ``blessed mysteries'' of existence sharpen then, but still resist solution. Kotlowitz (Sea Changes, 1986; The Boardwalk, 1977, etc.) has 1940's Jewish Baltimore firmly his own by now; in its seemingly cozy confines, he can explore the large matters, like faith, without fake pomp and posture. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In this skillful evocation of life during the 1940s in a Jewish community in Baltimore, Cantor Sigmund Safer prepares his choir for the High Holy Days, copes with a rebellious teenage daughter, and visits his dying friend in the hospital. The Cantor is not a cardboard figure but a real person who struggles with his lack of faith, has nightmares about his early life in Poland, and takes to his bed periodically to escape from his burdens. The other members of the congregation are also portrayed realistically and humorously, including a faction of congregants who want to break away and form their own temple. Kotlowitz effectively juxtaposes daily problems with the larger concerns of the Holocaust and the fate of European Jewry. Highly recommended.
- Stephanie Furtsch, New Ro chelle P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679408681
• ISBN 13: 9780679408680
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 337