(no subject)

Last year aquamirage and I went to go see Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway. Shortly afterwards, aquamirage turned up the astonishing news that the Tzeitel we saw -- a very good Tzeitel! -- had so many feelings about the show that she wrote and published her own fanfic sequel, After Anatevka.

After Anatevka is actually about Hodel, not Tzeitel, which makes more sense when one learns that Alexandra Silber also played Hodel in the West End London production. The first section is mostly Hodel Suffering Grimly while she's imprisoned for months waiting to be allowed to join Perchik in Siberia, with frequent flashbacks to Sister Stuff in Anatevka. I disagree with some of her headcanons about how the sisters relate to each other (I liked her Tzeitel very much onstage but she's definitely Wrong about her in prose, ask me why), but I respect the strength of Alexandra Silber's Feelings About Sisters, and I should reiterate that she has many.

She also has A LOT of feelings about the truth and strength and beauty and power of Hodel/Perchik and Tzeitel/Motel, nobody has EVER been in love as much as these kids are, there IS no Tzeitel without Motel! there is NOTHING more important in the world than Perchik's love for Hodel! which, I mean, everyone has their OTPs, live your truth. (As far as I can tell she does not seem to have anywhere near as many feelings about Chava and Fyedka, like, she's not anti, she just mostly avoids the subject.)

Anyway, the second section is mostly from Perchik's POV after Hodel has gotten to Siberia and introduces us to a whole slew of new prisoner buddies - the depressed irritable cellist! the happy-go-lucky old thief! the gay man who murdered his boyfriend! the Simple Peasant who's in Siberia for Unspecified Crimes! - while also flashing back to Perchik's backstory.

If you're curious, according to Alexandra Silber, Perchik:

- is a genius! the most gifted child his community and rabbi have ever seen!
- but was unable to realize his potential because he was raised by a Heartless Dickensian Money-Lending Uncle
- because his Bohemian Mother fled the community and gave birth to him and died!!
- then he goes off to college and becomes a depressed alcoholic and bangs a lot of prostitutes
- but turns his life around after a pep talk from Anton Chekhov during which Perchik helpfully gives Chekhov the most famous line in 'The Cherry Orchard'
- at some point becomes tight with Trotsky and in on Top Secret Socialist Plans but this is never actually shown on the page so it's difficult to know when he has TIME in between being a depressed alcoholic and bouncing off to Anatevka to fall madly in love with Hodel and getting shipped off to Siberia

This is ... a significantly more Dramatic and Important Perchik than I have ever gotten out of the Fiddler canon, lol, and also than I suspect ever existed in Sholem Aleichem's head, but again, if that's what's necessary for your OTP, Alexandra Silber, who am I to say no?

That said, I think my biggest actual irritation with this book is the fact that despite a lot of emphasis on Hodel and Perchik's True Love and how Hodel And Perchik Will Change The World Together, Hodel is explicitly kept out of all Perchik's revolutionary Siberian goings-on ( until massive spoilers at the end )