[Gutenberg 36715] • Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto
![[Gutenberg 36715] • Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto](/cover/ag1lNU5xb9CokRuj/big/[Gutenberg%2036715]%20%e2%80%a2%20Yekl:%20A%20Tale%20of%20the%20New%20York%20Ghetto.jpg)
- Authors
- Cahan, Abraham
- Publisher
- Dover Publications
- Tags
- jewish fiction , new york (n.y.) -- fiction , jews -- new york (state) -- new york -- fiction
- ISBN
- 9780486224275
- Date
- 1970-06-01T00:00:00+00:00
- Size
- 0.11 MB
- Lang
- en
"No American fiction of the year merits recognition more than this Russian's stories of Yiddish life. … [Mr. Cahan] is a humorist, and his humor does not spare the sordid and uncouth aspects of the character whose pathos he so tenderly reveals." — William Dean Howells
In *Yekl* , the central problem derives from a social condition: the urgent desire of the hero to become a real American, to be less a "greenhorn"; but the play of events is around an emotional crisis; Yekl no longer loves the wife he left behind, who has now rejoined him in the new land, and who seems to him shockingly European.
In *The Imported Bridegroom* , the issue is apparently religious, a clash between traditional faith and secularism; but we are left wondering whether philosophy has not become commingled with sociology. Other stories deal with sweatshop life, romance in the slums, a wedding in the ghetto.