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Title: The Fragmented Life of Don Jacobo Lerner (Jewish Latin America) by Isaac Goldemberg, Robert S. Picciotto, Ilan Stavans ISBN: 0-8263-2074-0 Publisher: University of New Mexico Press Pub. Date: April, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating portrait of the experiences of Jewish immigrants
Comment: Goldemberg's novel is a fascinating portrait of th experiences of Jews who immigrated to South America during the early to mid 20th century. The author describes how difficult it was to find acceptance among Peruvians while being incapable of maintaining ties to the Jewish community and to Jewish religious practices.

The story is fragmented in its presentation (hence the title.) It is not told in a chronological fashion. Instead, it jumps around from point to point. I found the structure difficult at first, but I eventually became accustomed thereto.

Jacobo Lerner is reviewing his pitiful life just before he is about to die. He set up a shop in a small rural village where there were few Jews. He impregnated a local woman, but leaves the village for Lima because he longs for the cosmopolitan life. He never sees his son, Efrain. He remains in the village where he is taught to hate Jews, but where is also feared because he is the son of a Jew. Lerner sets up a brothel and carries on an affair with his brother's wife; he alienates the Jewish community. The people whose lives he has affected feel that his death is a good thing, either because it will relieve his suffering or because it would be just.

Each chapter is set up in a different format: memories by Lerner, remembrances by old friends, exerpts from a Jewish daily, etc.

I wish Ilan Stavans' introduction would have given more insight into the importance of the novel for Jewish and Latin American Literature. His work is usually good.