Author: Norman Edelstein

ISBN: 1598004425

The following review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Editor of Bookpleasures. CLICK TO VIEW  Norm Goldman's Reviews       

It is often said that many of us have in us a book that needs to be written. Perhaps, it is the one that keeps up awake a night that is rooted in our own personal experiences or those of others. Eighty-one year old Norman Edelstein is one of the many who realized his dreams and put pen to paper. The result is Big and Little Jake a Novel that according to Edelstein is a work of fiction paying homage to the people who risked everything to make their way from Europe to the United States in the early part of the last century.

The novel follows the life of Yacov Rabinovitz who in time changes his name to Jake Rabin while on his way to the United States. His friends later nickname him Big Jake to differentiate him from his son David Rabin or as he was referred to as Little Jake.

Jake was born in Romania to Sholom and Chava Rabinovitz in the 1880’s, both of whom were previously married but unfortunately had lost their respective spouses to illness.

Chava, at the time of her marriage to Sholom, had a son Ancel, whom Sholom had immediately embraced as his own.

Yacov and Ancel were practically inseparable until one day Ancel, who was a musician, decided that the time had come to leave Romania and join a group of minstrels traveling through France, Spain and the southern part of Europe. Both agreed, however, that Yacov would eventually leave Romania and find his way to America, vowing to ultimately one day bring Ancel and their parents to the United States.

At the age of seventeen Yacov leaves home and travels throughout Europe taking on odd jobs and staying in farm houses along the way. Yacov also seems to be adept at attracting lonely women and on more than occasion he is a willing partner in satisfying their sexual appetites. However, Yacov never loses sight of his promise to his family that he will help them out of their miserable life.

Eventually, Yacov meets up with Rasheed, ibn Ali, who is a Captain of a ship and who agrees to employ him for six months as a helper to the ship’s engineer. He ultimately winds up in Mannheim on the Rhine River and in due course finds his way to Amsterdam. It is here where he stumbles on further employment and saves enough money to enable him to purchase passage on the ship, Argentinean bounded for America.

Once in America, Yacov now known as Jake Rabin succeeds in reuniting his family, marries, fathers a son David under unusual circumstances, joins the armed forces in World War I, has an adulterous relationship and lives the life he always dreamed about. We also follow the life of his son David who likewise joins the armed forces in World War II and eventually returns to the family business, where he began his working career at the age of thirteen.

Edelstein is not a bad storyteller who knows how to throw in a few curves now and then, thus keeping his readers off -balance. Nonetheless, what is not up to scratch about this novel is its lack of good editing and proofreading. There are glaring grammatical and spelling errors that at times required me to re-read entire paragraphs and sentences to comprehend what the author was trying to say. Moreover, there is a lack of focus, as the novel veers into excess describing Jake’s war efforts as well as those of his son David.  More ink should have been devoted to their trials and tribulations in the United States and how they were able to succeed in spite of the many disappointments and difficult times they had to endure.