Overview

A master storyteller's novel of crime, corruption, and antisemitism in early Manhattan, Ravage & Son reflects the lost world of Manhattan's Lower East Side - the cradle of Jewish immigration during the first years of the twentieth century - in a dark mirror. Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, serves as the conscience of the Jewish ghetto teeming with rogue cops and swindlers. He rescues Ben Ravage, an orphan, from a trade school and sends him off to Harvard to earn a law degree. But upon his return, Ben rejects the chance to escape his gritty origins and instead becomes a detective for the Kehilla, a quixotic gang backed by wealthy uptown patrons to help the police rid the Lower East Side of criminals. Charged with rooting out the Jewish 'Mr. Hyde', a half-mad villain who attacks the prostitutes of Allen Street, Ben discovers that his fate is irrevocably tied to that of this violent, sinister man. 'One of our most rewarding novelists.' Larry McMurtry 'Charyn's sentences are pure vernacular music, his voice unmistakable.' Jonathan Lethem 'Charyn is a one off: no other living American writer crafts novels with his vibrancy of historical imagination. William Giraldi

Full Product Details

9781915798206

Table of Contents

Reviews

'One of the most important writers in American literature.' -- Michael Chabon 'Jerome Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer—so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible.' -- Tom Bissell 'Charyn is a one off: no other living American writer crafts novels with his vibrancy of historical imagination. -- William Giraldi 'Charyn’s sentences are pure vernacular music, his voice unmistakable.' -- Jonathan Lethem 'One of our most rewarding novelists.' -- Larry McMurtry

'One of the most important writers in American literature.' -- Michael Chabon 'Jerome Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer—so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible.' -- Tom Bissell 'Charyn is a one off: no other living American writer crafts novels with his vibrancy of historical imagination. -- William Giraldi 'Charyn’s sentences are pure vernacular music, his voice unmistakable.' -- Jonathan Lethem 'One of our most rewarding novelists.' -- Larry McMurtry 'No one does it better than Charyn.' * Crime Time *

“One of the most important writers in American literature.” -- Michael Chabon “Jerome Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer—so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible.” -- Tom Bissell “Charyn is a one off: no other living American writer crafts novels with his vibrancy of historical imagination.” -- William Giraldi 'Charyn’s sentences are pure vernacular music, his voice unmistakable.' -- Jonathan Lethem “One of our most rewarding novelists.” -- Larry McMurtry

Author Information

Jerome Charyn (b. 1937) is the critically acclaimed author of nearly fifty books. Born in the Bronx, he attended Columbia College. After graduating, he took a job as a playground director and wrote in his spare time, producing his first novel, a Lower East Side fairytale called Once Upon a Droshky , in 1964. In 1974, Charyn published Blue Eyes , his first Isaac Sidel mystery. This first in athe so-called Sidel quartet introduced the eccentric, near-mythic Sidel, and his bizarre cast of sidekicks. Although he completed the quartet with Secret Isaac (1978), Charyn followed the character through Under the Eye of God . Charyn, who divides his time between New York and Paris, is also accomplished at table tennis, and once ranked amongst France's top 10 percent of ping-pong players.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available