PEDLOCK & SONS

by Stephen Longstreet ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 1966

Longstreet's novel about a Jewish family that owns forty eight department stores picks up the Pedlocks, a family he dropped in 1951. Weidman and Wouk have covered some of this territory but neither with quite the density of Jewish experience Longstreet manages to pack into sentence after sentence. The story opens when eighty-two year old Judith Pedlock returns from Europe with a new fiance, twenty years her junior. However there's every indication that there's still plenty of vigor in the old girl. Unfortunately for her voluminous family, Judith still owns the controlling stock in Pedlock stores and she seems determined to build a Hasidic university for her fiance to manage. The family takes steps to see that her fortune is not entirely dissipated in such a nonprofit undertaking but eventually the firm is captured by a rival syndicate. This highly populated novel shifts from Greenwich Village to West End Avenue, ""21"" to ocean liners, and even to Poland. Judith is a magnificent character and her story is full of observation, cultural insight and expert craftsmanship.

Pub Date: Oct. 3, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1966

Categories: FICTION