Rating: 
Summary: Endurance, love, and stalwart courage
Review: Opening in the early years of the twentieth century, Beyond The Pale by Elana Dykewomon is the engaging story of Gutke Gurvich and Chava Meyer -- two Russian Jewish women who go through hardship. Chava loses her parents to the brutality of a Russian pogrom, and then both women immigrate to New York City, where they find a new definition of cruelty awaits. The Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire figures prominently in this award-winning historical novel which provides the reader with a superbly written tale of endurance, love, and stalwart courage.
Rating: 
Summary: A Historical Novel about Russian Jewish Lesbian Immigrants
Review: This 404 page book, is somewhat overwritten, but does give an exceptionally good and detailed look at Russian Jewish life in the 1800's. The book begins in the first person, telling part of the story of Gutke a midwife, and lesbian. We get a flashback of when Gutke was a young girl, and how she and mother survived following the death of the husband---who was not the father of Gutke, as her mother was raped.
Gutke has one black eye and one gold-flecked eye, which makes her unusual. She has a bit of gypsy blood in her, and sometimes seems to be able to see the future of certain babies she delivers.
As a child, Gutke, and her mother surive thru the kindness of a woman who owns and runs a Jewish bathhouse in a small Russian town.
There Gutke discovers the lesbianism of two of the patrons of the bathhouse. Later she goes and lives with one of the women, only as a friend, and thru her, meets Dovida.
Dovida is a lesbian woman who has disguised herself as a man. She and Gutke continue this, coming to America eventually where they live as husband and wife.
However, Dovida and Gutke's relationship is never examined in much detail. Nor are we ever privy to Dovida's youth and her experiences.
Or how Dovida manages to get away with her disguise, and how it went for her entering the country of America disguised as a male. The fact this is not examined was disappointing to me as a lesbian reader.
Featured more prominently in the book is Chava Meyer, and her cousin Rose. Chava's story begins when she is quite young, and it is some time before any lesbian romance or exploration of the lesbian side of her nature is explored or discussed at all.
When Chava's parents are killed during one of the frequent "progroms" that attack Jews in Russia, Chava comes to live with her Aunt Bina (her mother's sister) and her husband, Isadore.
Eventually Chava travels with her aunt's family in the hold of a ship ( a brutal crossing) to America.
There Chava gets a job in factory, as does Rose. Chava and Rose FINALLY began their love affair. Once again, I felt somewhat cheated as a lesbian reader, the affair fails to ever consume as much attention as it deserves.
Instead the author seems to have an intense interest in the problems of workers, labor unions, socialism, and politics. Since these particular subjects are quite boring to me, I found myself skimming some of those sections,
Eventually the plot, such as it is, is tied into the famous shirt-waist factory fire--which is an actual historical event, in New York.
At this point the novel trails off, without any definite conclusions regarding Chava's future, and we are left with the impression she goes on to help with labor unions, etc.
Not enough lesbian content in the book to be truly satisfying, but does give a good view of Jewish Russian Immigrant life at that time.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-researched, but falls flat
Review: This is an important story which needs to be heard, which means it also deserves to be written well. Unfortunately, Beyond the Pale is over written, and the main romance unsatisfying. In the last half of the book, the frequent point of view shifts are distracting-- the hodge-podge seams of the book show through. Although the author captures Yiddish inflections in the dialogue very well, the dialogue itself is often unnatural, reading like a summary of political arguments in a classroom, rather than revealing innuendos of character and mood. The character of Gutke the midwife is the most interesting aspect of the book, but too little a part of it to be a reason to recommend it. I became quickly impatient with its sentimentality and wooden politics.
Rating:
Summary: This is not your father's Ellis Island story.
Review: This is perhaps the best novel I've read in years -- and I'm a college literature professor, so I read a lot. I'll admit that I'm a Jewish lesbian, so the book has tremendous personal resonance for me. But this is a novel that should greatly affect anyone who cares at all about women's history, the Jewish experience in America, the history of the labor movement -- or, for that matter, fine contemporary writing. I disagree with the earlier reviewers who characterize the book as either flat or overwritten; I can only imagine that as the reaction if you were looking for a hot but not-too-taxing lesbian romance. This is a different kind of book. There is love between women in this book--quirky, believable, and heartbreaking--but it is not a book that makes the drama of what happens in a couple the entire world. This is love immersed *in* the world. I found the book richly and elegantly written, with excellent depth and insight into the main characters. Elana Dyke! womon is also a fine poet as well as a novelist, and this comes through not only in the verse fragments within the book but also the way it circles around a number of recurrent, evocative images. Anyway, I cannot recommend enough that you take the time to immerse yourself in this finely-crafted, large-spirited, woman-centered novel.
Rating:
Summary: A magnificent work of literature
Review: This is perhaps the best novel I've read in years -- and I'm a college literature professor, so I read a lot. I'll admit that I'm a Jewish lesbian, so the book has tremendous personal resonance for me. But this is a novel that should greatly affect anyone who cares at all about women's history, the Jewish experience in America, the history of the labor movement -- or, for that matter, fine contemporary writing. I disagree with the earlier reviewers who characterize the book as either flat or overwritten; I can only imagine that as the reaction if you were looking for a hot but not-too-taxing lesbian romance. This is a different kind of book. There is love between women in this book--quirky, believable, and heartbreaking--but it is not a book that makes the drama of what happens in a couple the entire world. This is love immersed *in* the world. I found the book richly and elegantly written, with excellent depth and insight into the main characters. Elana Dyke! womon is also a fine poet as well as a novelist, and this comes through not only in the verse fragments within the book but also the way it circles around a number of recurrent, evocative images. Anyway, I cannot recommend enough that you take the time to immerse yourself in this finely-crafted, large-spirited, woman-centered novel.
Rating:
Summary: Silently Perfect, Blindly Nice
Review: When I first finished this novel, my girlfriend looked over at me and said, "Parsha, you're crying like you lost your own loved one." As I tried to explain the story to her, I couldn't make out one sentence without breaking into tears. Even at work that week, thoughts would lead me back to that book and once again I'd became a blubbering mess! A few months have passed and yesterday I found myself pulling it off my bookshelf. I noticed several pages were wrinkled up by the salt in my tears that fell upon them. And still I'm left with the same feeling all over again... this is the best book I've ever read! It is a story of struggle, love, loss, and perseverance through the eyes of many characters. It is an incredible journey that is so intensifying your heart will bleed! You'll find yourself searching at the bookstores for copies to share with those who appreciate only the best. One recommendation: When reading Beyond The Pale, don't forget the Kleenex... trust me, you'll need it!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read !!!!
Review: Wow, what a great book. The story is quite captivating. It was interesting to me how the main character's lives ended up inter-twining. Not only was the story interesting but it gave you a peek at the atrocities that went on in Russia in the late 1800's and in America in the early 1900's. It makes you think, well it made me think, how far we have come as a nation and how far we have yet to go. I think the author focused not only on lesbian relationships but also on women as a whole. The relationships between Mothers and daughters, between Fathers and daughters, the relationships between women in general and the lot in life that women seem to perpetually get, each of these things added up to make the book as interesting and as appealing as it was. I cannot recomend this book enough. Whether you are a lesbian or not or whether you are Jewish or not, if you are a woman - this book is a MUST read.
| 
