Death by Pastrami
This book contains seventeen stories, some of which evoke the garment district of New York City in the early years of the 20th century. Others are set further back in time, in Eastern Europe, and still others in present-day New York, where people lament the fate of the American garment industry, which barely lingers on in small Seventh Avenue workshops. Through the stories we see the sweep of the American immigrant experience. For a New Yorker like myself, the stories bring familiar locales to life and flesh out familiar history in a delightful way. But I would recommend the book, with its whimsical humor, to anyone.
The characters are quirky but likable. Back in the old country, a father does just the wrong thing to arrange a marriage for his ugly daughter and a young man he rescues from the life of a beggar. In America, a boss in a garment shop loves a young woman worker for the fierce pride that complicates their relationship. A salesman steals pens—for reasons that make sense only to him. An engineer decides it is more efficient to dress exactly the same way every day of his life; who could know how it would impact his human relationships? Life is full of unanticipated consequences and unexpected turns in the road. Nothing happens the way we expect it to.
The writing has an engaging naturalness. The author has had a long career in the garment industry, which enriches many of these tales. He also has the literary craft to pleasurably immerse us in several different, fully realized small worlds. I enjoyed this book immensely.
