Steve Stern (1) (1947–)

The Frozen Rabbi is the third book on my 2024 reading list to earn a poor rating. The other two were on the All-TIME 100 list I was finishing and I can question the taste of the people who chose them as worthy. This one was chosen for one of the more difficult categories on my themed list: A Book That Takes Place In Your Hometown (in my case, Memphis), so I have only myself to blame.

The novel is a rambling family history that alternates between the past generations responsible for transporting the title character (who is indeed frozen in water) and the present generation (particularly the teenage son, Bernie) guilty of releasing him from his hypothermic encasement onto a gullible world. Initially these complimentary narratives are interesting, filled as the past is with colorful characters surviving in a world bent on eradicating Jews (it wasn't just Hitler). Despite handed-down claims of the rabbi's talismanic properties, the family suffers impoverished, persecuted lives as they transport the rabbi from Eastern Europe to New York and eventually Memphis. Successive generations suffer worse than the previous. The men die or—worse—are killed by their rebellious progeny, women are kidnapped and tortured, relatives disappear, then reappear as terrorists.

The novel progresses as if Stein was inspired by the idea of a character in whom he subsequently loses interest. Focus shifts to the next character as if the current has served their purpose; its only subsequent requirement is to die in an ignoble state of existence. As past and present converge, the narrative becomes a regurgitation of Bernie's grandfather Ruby's diary, which Bernie is reading to his girlfriend. From this point to its conclusion, the novel feels rushed, its style changing to mostly summary. Perhaps this is an attempt on Stein's part to simulate the experience of Bernie reading (as opposed to having his third-person narrator tell this part of the story). It also marks the point my interest waned, and I too rushed towards the novel's absurd conclusion.

I tend not to trust authors who feel compelled to use big words (e.g. "peregrination" instead of "walk"). They are showing off their vocabulary rather than telling a story, and the other elements of the tale will reflect this same desire to impress rather than to entertain. The Frozen Rabbi is replete with such loquaciousness. Perverse rather than offensive, it reads like an accumulation of the author's arcane and esoteric knowledge of Jewish history and culture in search of an interesting plot (much like its eponymous protagonist's journey toward enlightenment after he awakens). This effort culminates in a sex scene performed between the living cadaver inhabited by the spirit of the dead Bernie and his erstwhile girlfriend, appropriately concluding a nonsensical book that left me asking, "what was that all about?"… (mehr)

A great premise and plot, interesting characters, an unusual perspective on the Jewish-American experience and the founding of Israel, but ultimately a major disappointment. The writing never took complete advantage of all of these great elements, so I always felt aware of reading as opposed to getting lost in the world of the book. The story was compelling enough to keep me going until the end though, which was the most disappointing of all. I felt utterly betrayed by the resolution of this book.… (mehr)