Newspaper Page Text
The Jew in
Recent Novels
This is abridged jrom "The Year's Bookshelf," a
survey of books in English of Jewish interest by Dr.
Joshua Bloch, Chief of the Jewish Division of the
New York Public Library, the full text of which is
to appear in the forthcoming volume of the tri
lingual Jewish Book Annual to be issued by the
Jewish Book Council of America under the sponsor
ship of the National Jewish Welfare Board.
—The Editor.
Some of the Jewish experiences
in the armed forces have found
their way into the literature and
lore inspired by the recent war.
Act of faith and other stories by
Irwin Shaw (New York, Random,
1946), offers a colection of twelve
masterful war stories. Three of
the stories have Jews as their
heroes and one deals with Ameri
can anti-Semitism. Shaw shows
that although the military war was
won by the Allies, the war of prop
aganda against the Jew was won
by the fascists. Moreover, he also
shows that the surviving Jews of
Europe have nowhere to go but to
Palestine—"the lamb does not go
back to the slaughter house.”
A first novel which may be the
first step in a notable literary
career is The Dim View, by Ba
sil Heatter (New York, Farrar,
Straus, 1946), the hero of which in
the first person is Jim Masters,
naval lieutenant in command of a
PT boat, who would not or could
not surrender his personality. Mr.
Heatter extricates his hero from
this delimma by introducing Nora
Young, a generous, attractive Aus
tralian barmaid, and Dr. Milton
Schwartz, refugee Jewish psychia
trist, who endeaver to restore the
wounded man to mental health.
The author of the novel is the son
of the well-known radio commen
tator, Gabriel Heatter and the
grandson of David Moses Hermalin,
a distinguished Yiddish journalist.
The subject of his novel is one
that he can treat with experience,
as he is himself a veteran of the
war in the Pacific, a former officer
on a PT boat, wounded in action.
Hangman's Hill by Franklin Pell
(New York, Dodd. Mead, 1946) is a
mystery story (winner of the semi
annual Red Badge $1,000 Prize
Contest) involving personnel of an
army press camp in ETO, pre
sumably in Alsace, during the Al
lied invasion. Among the corres
pondents are two photographers.
Tubby Cohen, who is Jewish and
Walter Levine. Because of Le
vine's name and his passionate
avowal of hatred for the Nazis and
their persecution of the Jews, he
is taken for a Jew, until Cohen be
comes suspicious of his ignorance
of Jewish life and tradition. His
apparent pretense of being Jewish
causes him to be suspected of sev
eral crimes, among them the mur
der of a colleague. Accused, he
explains that, as an orphan he had
been unofficially adopted and
brought up by a middle-aged Jew
ish couple; and although they did
not raise him as a Jew or as their
son. he has taken their name and
feels emotional identity with their
people. He is later proven innocent.
There have been quite a number
of novels on the theme of the ex
periences of refugees from fascism
and especially their problems of
adjustment to new environments.
Children of Vienna, a novel by
Robert Neumann (New York, Dut
ton, 1947), presents the story of a
Negro chaplain in the American
army who was helpful to a group
of Viennese ragged, starved chil
dren, orphaned by war and perse
cution who have taken shelter in
the cellar of what had once been a
fine home. Their leader is a thir
teen year-old Jewish boy. The
Long Dusk, by Victor Serge; trans
lated by Ralph Manheim (New
York, Dial, 1946) is the story of a
small group of refugees from fas
cism who find the strength and
courage to begin an underground
resistance to the German occupa
tion in France. In Love from Lon
don, Gilbert Wolf Gabriel (New-
York, MacMillan, 1946) tells the
story of three American soldiers
(including a Back Bay anti-
Semite), billeted in London who
fell in love with a young refugee of
partly Jewish ancestry. On Some
Fair Morning, by Catherine Hutter
(New York, Dodd, Mead, 1946) is
a novel of Germany between the
two world wars when the Nazis
come to power. It tells of the
tragedy which comes to the family
of an American wife married to a
half-Jewish German aristocrat.
The Sudden Guest, by Chris
topher La Farge (New York, Cow-
ard-McCann, 1946) is a novel in
which the advent of the approach
^fustest ii'if/i
the Wostcjf
in
Savannah
since 1929!
WTOC
1290 ON YOUR DIAL
ALSO . . .
CBS and local
programs
unexcelled quality
for consistently
fine broadcasting!
Savannah, Georgia
WTOC-FM
98.5 M.C.
or
Channel 253
on your FM dial
CRITZ BUICK COMPANY
WEST BROAD AT BAY STREET
Telephone 3-8858
Savannah, Georgia
SAVANNAH MACHINE
AND
FOUNDRY COMPANY
ENGINEERS AND MACHINISTS
Machine, Blacksmith and Boiler Works
Iren, Brass and Aluminum Castings
ACETYLENE, ELECTRIC and THERMIT WELDING
Operating 1200 Ton Marine Railway and Craving
Dock capable of docking vessel 475' long,
draft 24' over keel blocks
P. O. Bom 590 Office * Plant
Tel. 3-6624 Lathrop Avenue
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
LANG'S
3 BIG STORES IN ONE . . .
"Where Thrifty Families Shop and Save"
221-223-22S Weit Brood St. SAVANNAH, GA.
The Southern Israelite
(37)