(no subject)

[skygiants]

I went into Elana Dykewoman's Beyond the Pale expecting, say, 60% lesbian romance, 40% Jewish Immigrant Story; what I got was more like 100% Jewish Immigrant Story, that happens to be about a lot of lesbians. Or maybe 120% Jewish Immigrant Story? Beyond the Pale is a fair amount of book.

Beyond the Pale starts with the story of Gutke, a lesbian midwife in the turn-of-the-century Pale of Settlement, who occasionally has visions of the future and sees ghosts, but quickly shifts focus to Chava, one of the girls Gutke delivers and later intermittently mentors on the occasions that their paths cross through the years. Chava has no supernatural abilities, but that's probably just as well, as she's really too busy getting involved in labor organization to have time to deal with visions. Up the union!

Dykewoman clearly poured a ton of research into Beyond the Pale and it shows. On the one hand, occasionally one starts to feel like Dykewoman had a list of Jewish Immigrant Experiences that needed checking off (Zionist brother, check; socialist brother, check; pogrom, check; Ellis Island, check; assimilationist brother, check; garment industry, check; tenement strikes, check; Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, check) but on the other hand the wealth of specific detail in and around the tentpoles makes it an enormously lived-in book, if occasionally somewhat slow. And there's for sure something about the fact that it is such a very classic iteration of the Classic Jewish Immigrant Story, with queer women so effortlessly centered in it; it makes a statement without having to make a statement. There were times I found the book slow, and other times a casual statement would hit my id with the force of a thousand suns, as with the lesbian dinner party scene where Chava and her girlfriend meet Gutke's partner, cross-dressing banker Dovida:

"Are there many women who go about disguised as you do?"
"It depends on what you mean by many [...] more than a minyan, not enough for a union."

This is ... really quite overwhelmingly on my brand, and also how I want to count everything from now on!

Comments

[sovay]

"It depends on what you mean by many [...] more than a minyan, not enough for a union."

I am here for this book.

[rymenhild]

Me too!

[skygiants]

that is a thousand percent the correct icon

[skygiants]

RIGHT? thank you yes I'll take twenty

[kore]

more than a minyan, not enough for a union

OK, that's fucken awesome.

[skygiants]

best possible units of measurement!

[luzula]

I have now ordered this book! : )

[skygiants]

I hope you enjoy it! :D

[ambyr]

I may need to look into this!

[skygiants]

I found it worth my time, for sure!

[oracne]

That sounds really great, despite the plethora of brothers.

[skygiants]

To be fair, not all of them are brothers of the same people! Chava has two brothers and also her cousin has ... three brothers? Four brothers? A RICH BOUNTY OF BROTHERS, no two alike!

[ceitfianna]

I read this book in high school. It was on the shelf of my English teacher and still remember it so clearly as the writer was good at this potent sensual writing. The part I remembered clearest was always about the baths, they seemed like lovely places to spend time.

[skygiants]

I'm so impressed that your English teacher owned a copy, what a delightful way to discover it!

[ceitfianna]

She had it but had no idea what the book was about. I don’t remember how she had it but when I was curious about it, I was able to read it first. She wasn’t the best English teacher but she did have a fascinating classroom library.

[plinythemammaler]

i saw this in a charity shop!!! and was unsure due to the author name! and must now RETHINK because this is 200% on brand, i am very ready, and i enjoy infodumpy historical fiction VERY MUCH

[skygiants]

Yeah, the name played a LARGE part in setting up some, uh ... initial expectations ..... about the balance of emphasis in the text ......

[allchildren]

...I'll TAKE it!

[skygiants]

RIGHT. I didn't love every word of it but I'm so glad it's here!