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<\/p>\nA Jewish friend once told me the joke about the Jewish telegram: \u201cStart worrying. Details to follow.\u201d There\u2019s a quality of that deathly humour throughout this novel by the Polish writer Mikolaj Lozinski \u2014 a history of a Jewish family in Poland in the first half of the 20th century. The same weary comedy from the telegram appears in the opening pages when a man is asked how things are, and he always replies, ambiguously, \u201cGood, but not hopeless.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man is Nathan Stramer. It\u2019s the end of the First World War and he has returned to Poland from New York where his brother, Ben, runs a stationery shop. \u201cThe most durable human virtue is business,\u201d says Ben, who sends money to Nathan while he works in a butcher\u2019s shop and awaits \u201cthe business opportunity of a lifetime\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Nathan has returned to be with his wife, Rywka, and their children, and the story cycles between the different family members. Sometimes the switches are too rapid as we move on before a storyline develops fully, and the book works best when Lozinski gives each episode the space it needs.<\/p>\n
For example, Nathan does find his business opportunity of a lifetime: he opens a caf\u00e9 and names it The Stramers. It\u2019s at the posh end of Goldhammer Street in the town of Tarnow and the family live at the other end. It\u2019s tense and funny at the same time as Nathan awaits his first customer. A prominent lawyer comes in for a coffee and Nathan is thrilled, but the lawyer doesn\u2019t pay before leaving. The tables become occupied, but \u201ccoffee-shop campers\u201d sit for half a day over a single cup. Nathan has a brainwave on how to deal with them: he saws a centimetre off the front legs of the chairs, making them uncomfortable to sit on. That goes as well as you might expect.<\/p>\n
The Stramer children have their own adventures. Rudek, the eldest son, goes to university in Krakow, and suddenly the tight-knit family members have difficulty arranging themselves as they walk down the street with a gap in their number. <\/p>\n
The middle son, Hesio, has trouble at school: a sex-obsessed pal makes him laugh while the headmaster is lecturing the pupils. (\u201cHe\u2019s getting a stiffy,\u201d Flounder whispers, and later instils a sense of wonder in Hesio by showing him his uncircumcised penis.)<\/p>\n
\u2022 What we\u2019re reading this week \u2014 by the Times books team<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n The youngest son, Nusek, petitions his father \u2014 without success \u2014 to buy a Christmas tree. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to ape the Catholics, are we?\u201d Nathan asks him, although he admits, \u201cYou had to give it to the Catholics, Christmas was the best business idea in the world.\u201d Aping or bending one\u2019s culture to fit in is a key theme in My Name Is Stramer. Jews are castigated for speaking Yiddish and not Polish, even though Jewish culture is well established in Poland.<\/p>\n Geopolitics enters their lives whether they want it or not, as it so often has for Jews throughout history. Some family members are drawn to the Soviet Union and communism as a safe harbour against the growing antisemitism in Europe while others argue against it. \u201cWhat about your party leaders Stalin has killed in Moscow?\u201d Rudek asks Hesio. The Zionists and the communists front up against one another: \u201cSod off to the Soviets!\u201d, \u201cSod off to Palestine!\u201d<\/p>\n Life in the Jewish quarter of Lodz in 1930<\/p>\n IMAGNO\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n The years pass and things don\u2019t get any better, but there\u2019s always an ebullience in the telling that reflects the indomitable spirit of the characters. Hesio is jailed in a crackdown on communists, but the worst part is his cellmate using his toothbrush. \u201cAs a communist I\u2019m opposed to personal property. Aren\u2019t you?\u201d the cellmate says.<\/p>\n The tone of the book is wise, world-weary and wry, and with an authenticity to its time that makes it feel like a rediscovered classic. (It was first published in Poland in 2019.) But things darken for the family as synagogues are burnt and Germans raid Jewish homes. Soon, \u201cStart worrying. Details to follow\u201d doesn\u2019t seem like such a joke. We remember that Tarnow is not far from Auschwitz and the scene of the Nazis\u2019 most notorious crimes.<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/c95e42ad-18ea-48d8-834a-3327cd6ee883.jpg\")
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