Small Worlds

Abbeville's decision to issue this novel, the first fiction ever from this publisher of illustrated books, may not be as signal an event as Tom Clancy's debut from the Naval Institute Press, but it is nonetheless a welcome surprise. Set in the Russian-controlled Polish town of Krimsk in 1903, this vibrant tale evokes the lost world of Eastern European Jewry. In Krimsk, a revered Hasidic rabbi, Reb Yaakov Moshe Finebaum, is mystical mentor to the faithful and nonbelievers alike. Ending a self-imposed five-year silence during which he struggled against the forces of evil and impurity, the ascetic, reclusive rabbi impulsively ushers in Tisha B'Av, a solemn holiday commemorating the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, by dancing boisterously on a tabletop with a retarded boy. Hoffman lovingly depicts a community where Jewish mysticism, Talmudic laws, folk superstitions and anti-czarist revolutionary socialism mingle obstreperously, and where the transcendent unexpectedly erupts into everyday life, as when the rebbe makes passionate love to his wife, or when he rescues the Torah from his burning synagogue, torched by an anti-Semitic mob. Swinging between yeasty comedy and tragedy, this pungent first novel follows Rabbi Finebaum to St. Louis, where he starts a new religious community to spread the message of messianic redemption to America. Less folksy than Sholem Aleichem, and less obsessed with demons and sex than I.B. Singer, Hoffman has a distinctive voice characterized by dry wit and ironic asides. Though he exhibits a thorough knowledge of the world of his forefathers, it is his insight into human nature that invests this story with charm and wisdom. (Oct.) FYI: Small Worlds is the first in a projected series of novels about the residents of Krimsk and their descendants in the U.S., Poland, Russia and Israel. Hoffman's 1982 story collection, Kagan's Superfecta, won the Edgar Lewis Wallant Award.