Saturday, February 13, 2010

Jacob's Cane : A Jewish Family's Journey from the Four Lands of Lithuania to the Ports of London and Baltimore; A Memoir in Five Generations
by Elisa New

Unless you're affiliated with a university and enjoy reading dry, densely-packed historical information, don't bother with this book. (The author is a college professor of American Literature at Harvard.)
The premise certainly sounded interesting: finding your great-grandfather's cane with four sets of initials, with the towns, carved on it and wanting to know the origins. Elisa New travelled to all of the countries, interviewed relatives, and sought out archives to unravel the story.
Unfortunately, the book left me empty. No warmth exuded from the pages. I don't believe anybody proofread it, either. There were many grammatical errors and misspellings. I actually contacted the author to apprise her of that fact. She wrote back asking me where I lived, why I bought the book (no purchase, took out from my local library), and if I liked it. I responded by saying that I don't believe many people would be interested in this volume, except perhaps elderly Jewish people who could relate to similiar instances.
Elisa was surprised to hear that there were so many errors. Apparently, I was the first person to find them. A paperback edition is already in the works and what I found and sent to her will be fixed.

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