The Red Heifer
Told from the point of view of a first-generation Jewish immigrant, only five when the story begins, this work deals with the trials and tribulations faced in the tumultuous world of New York in the 1930s. Though we are always aware of the backdrop of poverty, confusion and in many cases violence, it also expounds on the richness of family life and loyalties and is studded with an array of complex and intensely illustrated characters, all of whom have their own lessons to teach and flavor to impart. Definitions of love, life, death, and the manner in which the world works are all forged in the crucible of this multifaceted time and place.
Constantly struggling to find his own identity among the forces which define his life – the strong Jewish cultural expectations, at once very rigid and demanding and yet filled with strength and warmth – and the strong pull of the completely different, and at times confusing, way of American life, the boy’s story unfolds as a fiercely passionate depiction of an era since past, the likes of which we shall not see again.
