Howe, Irving - Wisse, Ruth R. (edited) : The Best of Sholom Aleichem

These stories, set only fifty to one hundred years ago, seem to speak to the reader almost from another world. The persecutions which dispersed a fragile community of Jews also drove the author to Europe and New York. He continued his prolific writing career, using a disarmingly folksy narrative style to delight readers with his gentle humor and instruct them in the uncertainties and cruelties of daily life. Aleichem writes of the Jewish tradition of Eastern Europe just before it disintegrated and became the nurturing soil of modern Jewish life. His use of folklore and the oral tradition give his stories the impact of immediacy and the heartwarming intimacy of a personal conversation. The reader is there in the shtetl, and Aleichem is there with him as the friendly guide pointing out the sights.