The Landsmen

by Peter Martin

Book Overview

The Landsmen is a novel of Jewish-American roots. Set in the village of Golinsk in Czarist Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, it evokes life under a system of massively cruel anti-Semitism. The word "landsmen" in Yiddish means people from the same place, but in this novel it conveys the larger meaning of "brothers"--in suf­fering, in faith, in humanity.

Peter Martin wrote the novel from the memories of the old people he knew as a boy in Brooklyn. The result is a work of fiction that is rich in a sense of time and place. The effect is bardic. Each section of the novel is narrated by one of nine characters: Yeersel, the tailor; Maisha, the religion teacher; Laib, the musician; Shim, his brother; Nochim, the dairyman; Berel, the watercarrier; Laib-Shmul, the butcher; Tzippe-Sora, the distiller; and Mottel, the outcast. Some migrated to America; some died in Golinsk.

First published in 1952, The Landsmen was the first volume of a projected trilogy, and was written to establish a sense of Jewish identity as the back­ground for a large fictional examination of Jewish-American life. Although The Landsmen was well received and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, it was never republished. The second volume of the trilogy, The Building, appeared in 1960. Peter Martin died in 1961.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809308371
• ISBN13: 9780809308378
• Release Date: November 1977
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

The real thing - no schmaltz or idealizations

This book was origianlly published in 1952 by Little Brown and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and won a National Book Award. This book was intended to be the root novel of a trilogy. "The Landsmen" by Peter Martin is one of the most universal novels I have ever read. A small village in pre-revolutionary Russia springs to life - what a cast of characters - all of them clearly recognizable in our time! Martin has such compassion, wit, irony, and he writes in a classical manner - no gimmicks, and no schtick, just rock solid counterpoint and harmony. He takes the notes of the major and minor literary scale(s) and does amazing things! Check out the second novel in the trilogy, "The Building" (1960) which is set in America in the 1930's. Sadly, Martin died suddenly in 1961 before he could finish the third novel.