The Samaritan Treasure

by Marianne Luban

Overview

Reminiscent of biblical stories, oral histories, and the work of Isaac Bashevis Singer, Luban's stories illuminate the history and the complexities of the Jewish experience, with settings in ancient Samaria, in Poland, in the concentration camps and in the settlements of the modern-day West Bank.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780918273796
Publisher:	Coffee House Press
Publication date:	07/01/1990
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

Editorial Reviews

In her debut collection, Luban seems most comfortable with faraway times and imagined worlds. The best of these five tales is the title story, which traverses the ages from the reign of Ahab and Jezebel to the waning days of the British Empire and includes extraterrestrial visitations, reincarnation and the vision of a restored Samaritan kingdom. Also notable is ``The Jew of Bath,'' in which Benjamin D'Aragon, a Sephardic Jew, sweeps Jane Austen off her feet. The other stories, however, miss the mark widely. ``Tomorrow You'll Forget,'' a Holocaust survivor's account of trading sexual favors for survival, is unbelievable in its portrayal of Auschwitz. Equally unconvincing is ``Professor Mondshane,'' about a romance between a middle-aged survivor and the rebellious teenage daughter of Polish anti-Semites. ``The Last of Rafaela'' appears to be a rewrite of Bernard Malamud's classic ``The Lady of the Lake.'' In Luban's version, an American Jew traveling in Europe falls in love with a beautiful Italian and loses her when he denies his Jewishness. Despite adding some Hollywood glitter and a happy ending, the author has not improved on the original. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The view of the Jew as alien, secret observer, someone who is not what he or she seems, reverberates throughout these five tales. In ``Tomorrow You'll Forget,'' which strongly echoes I.B. Singer, a young man lunches every day at the same cafeteria, where he recognizes but, put off by her appearance, avoids the Woman. One day, when the only place left open is at her table, she tells him the story of her life: a Holocaust victim who survived by becoming the whore of a Nazi officer in the camp where she was interned, she has never been able to forgive herself for what she did. The title story opens in historic Samaria with Ahab, the seventh king of Israel, then moves forward to the 1948 War of Independence. Luban's strong narrative voice gives her stories brio, depth, humor, and a fiercely personal point of view.-- Marcia Tager, Tenafly, N.J.

Library Journal