Review by BWHarold -- A Cobbler's Tale by Neil Perry Gordon
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Review by BWHarold -- A Cobbler's Tale by Neil Perry Gordon
[Following is a volunteer review of "A Cobbler's Tale" by Neil Perry Gordon.]
When I picked up A Cobbler’s Tale by Neil Perry Gordon, that’s what I expected, a family saga with some divine intervention sprinkled throughout. What I got was a rushed ”chosen one” story.
Pincus Potasznik leaves his home to find a better life in America. Yet, he leaves his very pregnant wife and three small children. On his journey to America, he meets Jakob Adler, a man who is running away from his own disappointing past. The two become inseparable best friends and build a successful cobbler shop, mainly thanks to Jakob.
Meanwhile, Clara, the wife Pincus left behind, gives birth to their fourth child and is forced to manage the family cobbler shop and provide for her family in an increasingly antisemitic region. After putting off retrieving his family for three years, World War One rears its ugly head and Pincus is swamped with guilt over abandoning his family in a war-zone. Luckily, Jakob is able to help his friend and offers to help Pincus retrieve his family.
Sounds like a great story, right? Well, take into account that the story I just laid out is only a wrapper for the story Mr. Gordon really wanted to tell.
Early on the reader is told that Pincus's oldest son Moshe is "special." The story barely follows Pincus in his new life and bounces back to Clara protecting her son from the antisemitic police force in their village. Moshe does indeed turn out to be a special person, and he turns out to be the real focus of the story. However, the majority of the book is told from everybody else's perspective except Moshe's.
The story follows Pincus's inflating ego, Clara's desperate struggle to keep believing in her husband, Jakob's incredible luck, and Moshe's blossoming abilities. When I say Jakob is lucky, I mean it is amazing how much his charm and wit put him in the exact right place and time for everything.
Truthfully, Pincus is a pointless character. He is an unpleasant character, I give kudos to Mr. Gordon for writing about "real" people, but Pincus is a petty and jealous little man. He isn't interesting to follow. This whole story would have been much more compelling if Clara had been the main character. At least then there could have been the tension of whether Pincus would keep his word and if Moshe would survive his troublesome childhood.
The lion's share of the American story-line focuses on Jakob and how Pincus turns a blind eye to his questionable activities. I was glad when Jakob would take over narration, even if his story-line was a bit cliche sometimes. His luck was unbelievable at times and it was clear he was just there to pave the way for Pincus.
I had trouble getting through this book. If Mr. Gordon wanted to write a book about Moshe, then why not tell the book from Moshe's perspective? I would have settled for a book entirely about Clara, she is hands down the best-written character in the whole thing!
Aside from the whip-lash viewpoint switches, the formatting of this book was little off too. The indention on the paragraphs was really shoved over in some places and there were some spacing issues. It may have been because I was reading the e-book version and that accounts for the strange text flow, but the grammar looked fine. The chapters were short and choppy, and it had an overall feeling of break-neck speed just to get to the final fifty-one chapters, the writing became more focused and less in a hurry to tell the reader what was happening. From chapter thirty-seven and on it felt like the story really began.
I give the book a 2 out of 4 stars rating. I was disappointed with the story and the delivery. There were some good bones to it, but it felt like Mr. Gordon was just trying to fill in a backstory for a larger story down the line. There is a sequel to this book called A Cobbler's Tale, The Righteous One. I'm not interested in it. I wouldn't recommend this book to anybody unless you really like "chosen-one" stories and don't mind that the whole book is just a set-up for a sequel.
******
A Cobbler's Tale
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
When I picked up A Cobbler’s Tale by Neil Perry Gordon, that’s what I expected, a family saga with some divine intervention sprinkled throughout. What I got was a rushed ”chosen one” story.
Pincus Potasznik leaves his home to find a better life in America. Yet, he leaves his very pregnant wife and three small children. On his journey to America, he meets Jakob Adler, a man who is running away from his own disappointing past. The two become inseparable best friends and build a successful cobbler shop, mainly thanks to Jakob.
Meanwhile, Clara, the wife Pincus left behind, gives birth to their fourth child and is forced to manage the family cobbler shop and provide for her family in an increasingly antisemitic region. After putting off retrieving his family for three years, World War One rears its ugly head and Pincus is swamped with guilt over abandoning his family in a war-zone. Luckily, Jakob is able to help his friend and offers to help Pincus retrieve his family.
Sounds like a great story, right? Well, take into account that the story I just laid out is only a wrapper for the story Mr. Gordon really wanted to tell.
Early on the reader is told that Pincus's oldest son Moshe is "special." The story barely follows Pincus in his new life and bounces back to Clara protecting her son from the antisemitic police force in their village. Moshe does indeed turn out to be a special person, and he turns out to be the real focus of the story. However, the majority of the book is told from everybody else's perspective except Moshe's.
The story follows Pincus's inflating ego, Clara's desperate struggle to keep believing in her husband, Jakob's incredible luck, and Moshe's blossoming abilities. When I say Jakob is lucky, I mean it is amazing how much his charm and wit put him in the exact right place and time for everything.
Truthfully, Pincus is a pointless character. He is an unpleasant character, I give kudos to Mr. Gordon for writing about "real" people, but Pincus is a petty and jealous little man. He isn't interesting to follow. This whole story would have been much more compelling if Clara had been the main character. At least then there could have been the tension of whether Pincus would keep his word and if Moshe would survive his troublesome childhood.
The lion's share of the American story-line focuses on Jakob and how Pincus turns a blind eye to his questionable activities. I was glad when Jakob would take over narration, even if his story-line was a bit cliche sometimes. His luck was unbelievable at times and it was clear he was just there to pave the way for Pincus.
I had trouble getting through this book. If Mr. Gordon wanted to write a book about Moshe, then why not tell the book from Moshe's perspective? I would have settled for a book entirely about Clara, she is hands down the best-written character in the whole thing!
Aside from the whip-lash viewpoint switches, the formatting of this book was little off too. The indention on the paragraphs was really shoved over in some places and there were some spacing issues. It may have been because I was reading the e-book version and that accounts for the strange text flow, but the grammar looked fine. The chapters were short and choppy, and it had an overall feeling of break-neck speed just to get to the final fifty-one chapters, the writing became more focused and less in a hurry to tell the reader what was happening. From chapter thirty-seven and on it felt like the story really began.
I give the book a 2 out of 4 stars rating. I was disappointed with the story and the delivery. There were some good bones to it, but it felt like Mr. Gordon was just trying to fill in a backstory for a larger story down the line. There is a sequel to this book called A Cobbler's Tale, The Righteous One. I'm not interested in it. I wouldn't recommend this book to anybody unless you really like "chosen-one" stories and don't mind that the whole book is just a set-up for a sequel.
******
A Cobbler's Tale
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Latest Review: Bird in a Snare by N.L. Holmes
