Author: Meyer Levin
Publisher:
Published: 2014-07-31
Total Pages: 674
ISBN-13: 9780692234600
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Meyer Levin was a Chicago-born Jewish author. His best-known book is"Compulsion", which is a novelization of the notorious Loeb and Leopoldmurder case of 1924. Levin was in a special position to tell the story,because he was personally acquainted with the perpetrators. Levin isalso famous for bringing Anne Frank's diary to light. But "The OldBunch" may be his greatest work. "The Old Bunch" was written in the mid-1930's, and it tells the talesof the kids of a Chicago Jewish ghetto coming of age and stepping outinto the world. It's presumably something of a fantasy autobiography,echoing Levin's own adventures -- Levin was born in 1905,and the events in this book take place beginning in the year 1921 (whenthe "bunch" is graduating from school), and running through to 1934. The book is compelling for its individual stories and for its livingwindow into times past. Because it was written prior to the horrors ofWWII, it's a very pure view of the pre-war era. (Anything written laterwill necessarily be done with hindsight, and will likely de-emphasize"unimportant" details in favor of those that connect to major warevents.) But the history is merely a fascinating byproduct of the vividhuman stories that fill the pages. "The Old Bunch" is surprisingly unknown today, which is a shame. Thisreally is one of the great novels, in a class with Tolstoy andSteinbeck. It conveys the entirety of the era: The people, the culture,the economics, Chicago politics (very dirty!), with a global perspectiveas well (some characters travel to Europe and Palestine). It covers theRoaring Twenties, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and the New Deal.To read the book is to live and breathe in these bygone days. Most importantly, Meyer Levin depicts events without agenda orjudgment. Characters may be Democrats or Republicans or workers orbosses or religionists or atheists or many other things, but all areportrayed with depth, and none are simple heroes or villains or symbols.These are, in the end, tales about the very personal and individualtransitions to adulthood, and the elusive quest for wisdom. It is thesame challenge that every generation must face. "The Old Bunch" was critically acclaimed and went through numerousprint editions, but it eventually passed into the public domain and wastemporarily forgotten. A Wall Street Journal article in 2012 ("Destiny'sChildren", by Joseph Epstein) sparked a revival of interest, and RanchoLazarus Publications is proud to present a new edition, accurately rendered andtrue to the original text, and with the addition of occasional footnotesto clarify details of historical accuracy that the modern reader may nothave on tap. With almost 700 pages of text (the original hardback bookran to almost 1000 pages), this is an epic novel. But far from beingoverlong, it's the sort of reading that leaves you wishing there wasmore. "Written in good hard-driving colloquial prose, full of sharpcharacterizations. . . A very fine novel." -- New Republic "A landmark -- vivid and exciting reading. It brilliantly succeeds intaking the reader on a memorable tour of the world in which the oldbunch lived." -- The New York Times
