Gittel
In Laurie Schneider’s stirring historical novel Gittel, a young immigrant makes her way in a small town where some people are hostile to differences.
Once, Gittel’s family lived in fine circumstances among a proud Jewish community. After a pogrom tore through their city in Tsarist Russia, though, they fled. They wound up in the farming community of Mill Creek, Wisconsin—one of thirteen Jewish families to resettle there. While most in their melting pot community welcome them, differences and all, the family of a classmate, Karl, is the exception: He taunts her with epithets, and his father, a fire-and-brimstone preacher, rails against all that he considers evil, including Jews, from pulpit and barstool alike.
Sharp-tongued and quick-witted, Gittel refuses to cower beneath Karl’s cruelties–in fact, she throws them right back at him. She also worries about what her life will become when eighth grade ends. Though she’s a gifted student, there’s no upper school in Mill Creek. Still, she prepares to wow crowds with a poetry recitation at a local festival; practices Jewish traditions beside her supportive grandparents and parents; saves her community from a roof collapse; and experiences the starriness of first love. When she has the opportunity to see what undergirds Karl’s hurtful behaviors, fresh compassion is added to her growing list of accomplishments.
Gittel is an irresistible historical novel. Set between 1911 and 1912, the book captures a Midwestern town’s coming-of-age in the prewar period well. Yiddish words are sprinkled across its pages, fleshing out Gittel’s family life, and details as of Jane Addams’s suffragism, teetotalers breaking saloon bottles, and Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus” give shape to the growing pains and values of the era. Gittel is the perfect guide through these complex times—self-aware, determined, and eager to flourish.
Reviewed by
Michelle Anne Schingler
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
