Childhood Stories eBook Shalom Freedman
Download As PDF : Childhood Stories eBook Shalom Freedman 
In these stories I try to remember my own childhood but not as I see it now but rather as I saw it then. The short- short stories told here are told in the voice of that eight to twelve year old child growing up in the early fifties of the twentieth century. They tell the story of the family living in the second floor apartment of 145 First Street Troy New York. Daddy, Mommy, Jakie, Grunie and me.
But they also tell of larger worlds, the world of the extended family on both sides, Freedmans and Zeiberts, of the Shul the Sharay Tefileh and the Cheder, of the Jewish Community center, of School 10, of the ballpark at Hawkins Stadium, and the whole Troy- Albany Schenectady world of industrial plants and factories my father did business
with.
They tell the story of many distinctive and memorable ‘characters’..
For me as a child the world was often frightening and perplexing. The stories related here often center on my effort to understand myself and my world. They are stories more about that inner struggle than about anything else. . .
These stories are true stories but they are meant too to be enjoyed as Literature.
I do not know if they reach the level of Art but my hope is whatever few readers they might have will have pleasure and understanding, a greater love of Life from them.
Childhood Stories eBook Shalom Freedman
The previous reviewer both summed up this book and closely echoes my pleased reaction to the stories. In some respects, they reminded me of Steve Stern's stories set in the insular Jewish community of Memphis. Freedman's Troy (New York) is a tiny bit more diverse (i.e., there are non-Jews) , but still largely and quite characteristically ethnic, and very much of its time. Among the charms of this small book is Freedman's ability to convey the wonder and puzzlement of a child within the particular world of Troy and the varied cast of characters--- his immediate family, extensive relatives, friends of his parents, local hangers-on, schoolmates-- and his own curiosity, intelligence, and questioning of how and why people--- and God--- act the way they do. A useful glossary is included, containing both familiar (mensches and gonifs) and some new to me. A good gift for the baby boomers lately turned alte cockers.Product details
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Childhood Stories eBook Shalom Freedman Reviews
This little book succeeds so well both in evoking a time and place--now obscure and remote to most of us, the city of Troy, NY, ca. 1950--in all its immediacy and sociological color, and the inner and private world of an American Jewish boy (eventually Israeli Jewish man) growing up there; and, of course, the many rich intersections between the outer and inner worlds. The naivete of the young speaker's voice evokes poignancy and irony; many of his unanswered questions about God, life, an unjust and often cruel world, continue to resonate through our adult lives, perhaps more complexly formulated, but just as ultimately simple and plangent.
The boy's voice with its plain and direct diction turns out, too, to be a wonderful instrument to evoke character, most of all his immediate family--parents, brother, sister--but also a varied cast of other relatives, friends, enemies, and the many quaint, not infrequently pathetic individuals who populate the world of the mid-century town. That voice seemingly effortlessly conveys, too, the perplexities of being part of a Jewish minority in a melting-pot democracy and ethnically variegated neighborhood, the perplexities of navigating between what Judaism teaches about a just and concerned God and the evident sadness and misery endured by not a little of humanity; and the refuge to be found in familial love--most of all, a kind, humble mother with nothing but wisdom and compassion to dispense.
The impression left by this book is indelible. To sum up one's childhood, capture both its multifarious details and unique essence in a slim volume comprised of short prose passages--some of them rising to the level of prose poetry--is no small feat. Freedman has accomplished it wonderfully here. Highly recommended.
This is a memoir of childhood told in 120 minimalist stories. It is about the love that Seymour, who narrates the stories as a child of perhaps nine or ten, feels for his family and friends. It is also about the ethnic and socioeconomic stratification in Troy, New York, circa 1950 as a child lived it with the street tensions and the fine line between poverty and relative plenty. It is about family and the fears and the joys of growing up told in an uncluttered, guileless style replete with the kind of authenticity that can't be faked.
Seymour's father is a proud and resourceful man who has a junkman's business while his mother is the wise and loving center of the family. Seymour is the younger, bookish son; Jakie the older brother who can do everything Seymour can't. Seymour looks up to his brother while feeling that he fails his father because he is not as athletic as Dad. He loves his country and his neighborhood. He loves his Ma and his sister. He is the "good" boy who does his lessons and cares deeply about what is right and what is wrong. He feels life intensely as only children can. All the pratfalls of life are as vivid and sharp as first love and first defeat. It is the authentic language, the veracious detail and the acute sense of "this is happening now" that make this memoir a work of art.
Seymour's world is his home and the shul, his father's junk business, his colorful and sometimes embarrassing relatives, the streets where the Italians and black people live, where being a Jew is sometimes like being an outcast, where you have to fight and be brave and where you learn that life sometimes isn't fair.
The value of the stories is in the truth and the authenticity of the experience so well captured by the voice of the child Shalom Freedman once was. There's a kind of innocent purity in the expressions reflected in the style. No fancy words, just authentic language and a disarming lack of pretension.
Here's a bit from a couple of the stories, "Ma and Dad Disagree" and "You Have to Treat a Person as You Find Him," demonstrating the deep love and understanding that the boy has for his parents and ease with which Freedman reveals character
Dad always starts it. Ma's side does not have much upstairs. The Freedmans and the Wartels were merchant-princes in the old country. And bankers. And Dad himself can do rapid calculation in his head faster than anyone who writes it down... When Ma and Dad do the books together Dad is impatient at how slow Ma is with the truck mileage.
Ma does not answer mostly. She only tells us we must always stick together and help each other, and not fight with each other all the time the way the Freedmans do...
When Dad does not feel well he changes his tune, "We are all abnormal a bunch of introverts. Uncle Abie is a baseball bug, and Nate is the biggest maruk in the world who crosses the street when he sees someone who knows him coming. And Lakie is in everybody's pot, and doesn't mind her own. And Loukie is odd, with that wife of his who can think of nothing but the store."
...
Dad is all the time with the Goyim. He even has a goyish name, Kelly. He is called Kelly because when he played for St. Joseph's many years ago, and was the only Jewish guy on the team, they gave him the name so that the fans of the other team would not start cursing the team and make a fight.
Daddy has friends wherever he goes. He knows them all and they all know him. All over the area.
Ma says it is necessary to be nice to everyone. "A smile never hurts." "Every person is a human being."
This is real literature that brings to our consciousness and makes indelible the real psychological experience of what it means to be human and to live in a certain time and place.
The book is simply wonderful.
The previous reviewer both summed up this book and closely echoes my pleased reaction to the stories. In some respects, they reminded me of Steve Stern's stories set in the insular Jewish community of Memphis. Freedman's Troy (New York) is a tiny bit more diverse (i.e., there are non-Jews) , but still largely and quite characteristically ethnic, and very much of its time. Among the charms of this small book is Freedman's ability to convey the wonder and puzzlement of a child within the particular world of Troy and the varied cast of characters--- his immediate family, extensive relatives, friends of his parents, local hangers-on, schoolmates-- and his own curiosity, intelligence, and questioning of how and why people--- and God--- act the way they do. A useful glossary is included, containing both familiar (mensches and gonifs) and some new to me. A good gift for the baby boomers lately turned alte cockers.
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