The Black Hole Pastrami Stories by Jeffrey M. Feingold; Holyoke, Massachusetts: Meat for Tea Press © 2023; ISBN 9799388-289186; 89 pages; $16.95
SAN DIEGO – Like so many of my fellow Jews, I have been nearly glued to the television set, watching reports from Israel after the horrible massacre and kidnappings that Hamas perpetrated on Israelis on the Shabbat leading to Simchat Torah. Perhaps because my grandson, Shor Masori, arrived in Israel just nine hours before the war started, ironically to take a master’s degree in conflict resolution and mediation at Tel Aviv University, I’ve been hyper-focused on that terrible situation and grimacing with pain every time the reported number of Israeli deaths goes higher. At this writing, the number is over 900.
At times, you must have a quick break, if only for the reason of your mental sanity, from watching the horror on TV. I found the short breaks I needed in the clever, refreshing, short stories, of only a few pages each, in this anthology of semi-biographical Feingold pieces.
When Feingold was a third grader, abstract concepts left him confused. A teacher drew a horizontal line the entire way across a wide chalkboard and asked where the line ended. Feingold pointed to the point where the chalk marking stopped, and was told no, that was wrong; the line actually was infinite. His imagination couldn’t keep up with that. Nor could young Feingold understand when his rabbi at cheder said that the line from God went straight to his heart. No, that couldn’t be, the line went from the chalk board to infinity. The youthful Feingold preferred concepts less difficult to navigate. For example, as told in the first story in the collection, his dying father wanted once again to taste the “succulent, juicy, pepper-sweet taste of a simple pastrami sandwich.” With “spicy, stone-ground mustard,” to be sure. That was an idea young Feingold could get his teeth into.
All 16 stories in this collection are charming, but some, as in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, are more charming than others. My favorite was “My Left Foot” in which a man had always wanted to be on television. He finally gets a phone call from a casting director at the local PBS station, who had read the section in his resume about hobbies and interests. It turned out they didn’t actually want him, they wanted his dogs – a Basset Hound and a Saint Bernard – for a program on biodiversity. They wanted to show his dogs with others running together down a hill. What does that have to do with a left foot? I’ll leave that to your imagination.
Feingold’s writing is part whimsy, part serious reflection, all tied together with humor. I think you’ll enjoy this collection – especially now!
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com