The Prodigal Child by Irène Némirovsky (translated by Sandra Smith); Kales Press (c) 2021; ISBN 9781733-395847; 80 pages.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Irène Némirovsky, who wrote this novella, was murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Although she grew up in Kiev, in what today is part of Ukraine, she wrote in French. Translator Sandra Smith has brought her stories to light under the aegis of the Kale Press.
The Prodigal Child tells of a poor Jewish boy, Ishmael Barack, who learned of the world by exploring the docks and meeting its rough-hewn denizens in a town along the Black Sea. As a 10-year-old, he found his way into bars favored by the sailors, where his previously undiscovered genius for spontaneously creating poetry and songs flourished.
So great was his talent that he was taken under the wing of a Russian nobleman, himself a poet of some note, who worshipped at the feet of a refined Russian woman, whom he called “Princess,” though she was of lesser rank. The Princess also became enchanted with young Ishmael and arranged with his bewildered parents to take him under her care. She even paid for the privilege.
Ishmael’s raw talent took him from a hovel in the Jewish part of town to the lap of luxury at one of the Princess’s residences. She wished to feed his unschooled talent, to educate him to the traditions and rhythms of poetry, and to shape him as a potter molds clay.
Although her intent was to refine Ishmael, his reaction was to feel shamed. Reading the works of great poets, he began to despise his simple rhymes, and to castigate himself for not being more like them. The process of creating lost its spontaneity, his work–when he was able to do it at all–was far more labored.
And here I shall leave the rest of the story to your imagination, except to tell you that the tale is well told, and easy to read in a single sitting. Even in translation, Némirovsky had a great facility for painting word pictures. Young Ishmael is a memorable fictional child. How many more memorable works Némirovsky might have been able to bestow upon the world!
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com