Mein Krampf

Ukraine, 1952, ages ago, yet true. The girls still carry the heavy cross of the sexual innocence. A Russian girl, 22, rowing medalist and coach, fall in fiery, forbidden love with a cocky, witty boy, 14, listed as a Jew. Yet, he is above all that and plans to swim to Turkey if SSoviets try to ship the Jews to the starving, icy Siberian mini Zion named the Jewish Autonomous Region. The bedlam of arraigning the alleged Jewish moles of AmeriKKKans mirroring that in their country too crafts just a fading set in this truthful, intriguing book. S.I. Fishgal wanted to title MEIN KAMPF (My Struggle), but someone did that before. For ignoramuses in German, not you surely, krampf means cramp. His PIDDLER ON THE HOOF and KOSHER HOOKS show the boy’s earlier years. As a gentleman, Fishgal made his books independent, with the horse sense, crisp and funny language, topsy-turvy idioms and plays of words.