If I were to introduce this novel by saying “three teenage Jewish boys walk towards the Polish city of Lublin to sell brushes” it might sound like the start of a dodgy joke. But it's both accurate and in character with this wonderful story as Elya, the leader and entrepreneur of the group likes a good (or even a mediocre) wisecrack. He's convinced his pious friend Kiva to join him along with Kiva's mischievous and politically rebellious cousin Ziv. We follow their travels through the countryside and idiosyncratic towns trying to reach the marketplace in Lublin. Along the way they share bawdy tales, get into fights, compare peckers, exchange religious stories, run away from anti-semitic Cossacks, read “Crime and Punishment” and undergo a severe test of their willpower. Through this episodic adventure by foot the boys' vibrant personalities come to life as their friendship comes under strain and they contend with the circumstances of the early twentieth century. It's oftentimes funny, occasionally poignant and utterly refreshing in how it gradually morphs into a hauntingly surreal story.
Alongside the immediate action and trials these boys experience there are occasional references to larger events occurring in the world both in the past and the future. This narrative technique adds to the sense these lads have fallen out of a linear sense of time as they gradually run out of food and become lost. It's as if they are carrying their community and culture with them as they wander on a seemingly endless journey. Of course, this gestures at the plight of their people: “Everyone imagines a great finger reaching down from Gan Eden to designate a Jewish homeland... No sensible person or nation wants Jews on their doorstep. Farsteysh?” As the novel is set in Europe prior to the coming World Wars a reader can't help being aware of what trials such boys might face in the coming decades. However, their endearing dispositions are so lively this overarching theme doesn't weigh down the immediate story. Instead it builds to a moving portrait of these distinct figures trying to carve out their own path in a perilous world. I was utterly charmed by this book.
