THE MENDELMAN FIRE And Other Stories
By
A portfolio in three sections, the first, a single story, given over to the title, the second, A Village Like Yours, devoted to episodes in Russian Jewish life, and the third, Good Business With Sentiment, having its focus on a variety of shrewd operators caught, or freed, by their own transactions. Mendelman's fire is an unscrupulous scheme to insure Mendelman's fortune for this daughter and its ramifications are traced by Botvinnik, an accountant whose wily activities delight in, but are horrified by, the course of the plotting. The Village group deals with incidents in the life of Mankowitz' grandfather, when he was a little boy, and revolves around a pipe-making great-grandfather, Jewish customs, the painting of a portrait, a revolutionary aunt, the family cow, and rival cobblers. Business is of a laxative, art forgery, an unexpected half hour, diet for a purveyor of food, a return to Beth Zion, antique dealing in w.c.'s, triumph in the auctionrooms, etc. Exuberance, humor and fun and understanding heighten most of the tales and these Mankowitz trademarks should have an expected following.