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By the time Joseph Chaim Brenner arrived in London (where Out of
the Depths was written) in 1904, his literary reputation was
already established by a volume of short stories and a previous
novel, In Winter. Born in Russia in 1881, Brenner at the age of
twenty-four had fled the disorders of the Russian Empire for the
mean peace of London's East End. Out of the Depths is concerned
with a group of Russian immigrants in London who work for a Jewish
daily newspaper. They are caught up in a conflict with the owner
when he seeks to introduce a typesetting machine into the newspaper
shop. Following an unsuccessful strike, the impoverished workers
decline into a general collective misery that is relieved only by
the strength and honesty of the central character. The language of
Out of the Depths has a remarkably modern energy. Brenner
anticipates literary techniques that came into wide use only later.
The employment of stream of consciousness, shifting perspectives,
and emotive presentation and the use of vocabulary from the
Yiddish, Russian, German, and English languages have a startling
impact, a texture that Dr. Patterson faithfully captures while
conforming to the demands of English idiom. Employing an ancient
language in a modern idiomatic style, this little-known work by a
writer of remarkable honesty gives intense expression to the social
upheavals of the time and to the profound moral questioning that
for some was almost a consequence of living in the first years of
this century. David Patterson's translation of Out of the Depths
received the Webber Prize for translation in 1989.
By the time Joseph Chaim Brenner arrived in London (where Out of
the Depths was written) in 1904, his literary reputation was
already established by a volume of short stories and a previous
novel, In Winter. Born in Russia in 1881, Brenner at the age of
twenty-four had fled the disorders of the Russian Empire for the
mean peace of London's East End. Out of the Depths is concerned
with a group of Russian immigrants in London who work for a Jewish
daily newspaper. They are caught up in a conflict with the owner
when he seeks to introduce a typesetting machine into the newspaper
shop. Following an unsuccessful strike, the impoverished workers
decline into a general collective misery that is relieved only by
the strength and honesty of the central character. The language of
Out of the Depths has a remarkably modern energy. Brenner
anticipates literary techniques that came into wide use only later.
The employment of stream of consciousness, shifting perspectives,
and emotive presentation and the use of vocabulary from the
Yiddish, Russian, German, and English languages have a startling
impact, a texture that Dr. Patterson faithfully captures while
conforming to the demands of English idiom. Employing an ancient
language in a modern idiomatic style, this little-known work by a
writer of remarkable honesty gives intense expression to the social
upheavals of the time and to the profound moral questioning that
for some was almost a consequence of living in the first years of
this century. David Patterson's translation of Out of the Depths
received the Webber Prize for translation in 1989.
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