"Stern's captivating tales of the inhabitants of the Pinch, a teeming Jewish community in Memphis, blend yeasty realism and soaring fantasy."—Publishers Weekly
"A talented writer of fiction and Judaica, Stern has earned both an O. Henry Prize and a Pushcart Writer's Choice Award. These anachronistic novellas, which are set in 1920s Tennessee in the "forgotten" Jewish community of Pinch, portray characters who are both pessimistic and downtrodden. Zelik, Hyman, and the three Kabakoff men share similar traits. As misfits and loners, they are all failures who would prefer to observe rather than to act. Coming out of dysfunctional families, they are treated with scorn by their peers. They know they are different; they long to conform but favor invisibility in their efforts to find redemption. Stern writes a reminiscence/fantasy—with a kick. Is he being derisive or sympathetic in pointing out his people's foibles? Sometimes it is difficult to tell. Recommended for public libraries."—Library Journal
Description
Steve Stern returns with lyrically comic tales about the Pinch, a backwater Jewish community in Memphis, whose misbegotten citizens refer to themselves as “the lost tribe.” Stern’s dreamers are plagued by history, lust, solitude, and the extravagance of their own fevered imaginations.
Stern is a consummate spinner of tales, a mythmaker. A Plague of Dreamers evokes the American Jewish experience, weaving a tapestry of tradition and assimilation and, ultimately, of transformation.
About the Author
Steve Stern is the author of critically acclaimed books such as Isaac and the Undertaker's Daughter and winner of the National Jewish Book Award, The Wedding Jester. Stern currently lives in Balston Spa, New York, and teaches at Skidmore College.
March 1997