Why are we told of Shmuel Meir’s presence in the subway station in the 1960s, essentially the end of the story, in the beginning?
Is this a Jewish novel or are its themes universal? If Shmuel Meir was say a Christian survivor of the Armenian genocide or a Jehovah’s Witness survivor of the Nazi concentration camps would he face the same issues as he does as a Jewish survivor?
Many of the critics who have commented on the book comment on how the “unbelievable” story of Shmuel Meir seems perfectly believable within the book. How is this believability achieved in the novel?
There are several rabbis in the book, among them, Shmuel Meir, his grandfather, Elchonon Wasserman, the Bobover, and Abraham Hirsch. How do these rabbis contrast with each other in their roles as rabbi, in their relationship to God and in their relationship to their communities?
There are a number of novels over the years that involve Black and Jewish relations—such as James McBride’s The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store and Oreo by Fran Ross—but the Last Dekrepitzer seems to be of a very different genre. Do you agree? If so, why?
What thematic purpose is served by Shmuel Meir’s speaking Black English?
What is the role of music in the novel?
Is this a Holocaust novel?
While beginning in the first chapter the book appears to tell its story chronologically, Shmuel Meir’s story is actually told very differently. How is it told and why?
The book involves the music of many different people, Shmuel Meir, The Brown Sugar Ramblers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Nosson Sonneblick, Bob Gibson and, of course, The Reverend Gary Davis. What does the music of each of these people tell us? How do the various person’s music contrast with each other?
The book contains fictionalized characterizations of real persons such as Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Bobover Rebbe, and The Reverend Gary Davis as well as fictional characters such as Willie Carr, Isaiah Burchwood and Schiff—does the book gain anything from the use of these real persons? Would the book have been the same had the fictionalizations of real persons been given fictional names?
How does Lula and her relationship with Shmuel Meir contribute to the themes of the book?
In 1964 Edward Lewis Wallant’s 1961 novel, The Pawnbroker, was released as a major movie starring Rod Steiger. It was the first American film to depict scenes in a concentration camp. The protagonist, a camp survivor, operates a pawn shop on 125th Street in Harlem in the late 1950s and his clientele are almost entirely Black. The book thus takes place at the same period as The Last Dekrepitzer within a few blocks of where Shmuel Meir. plays on the streets with Gary Davis and explores themes of Jews and Blacks. How do the two books reflect the changes over the sixty years separating them in relation to the Holocaust and their themes?
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