Scribblings

The Chains

Years ago, I enjoyed reading Gerald Green's books very much. My sentimental favorites were The Last Angry Man and To Brooklyn With Love, almost the same story. The hero in both books were dedicated but very angry, frustrated doctors. They were both athletes and strong and both were raising skinny, sickly boys (one a nephew, the other a son). But enough of that...Gerald Green wrote some other books that I enjoyed very much including Blockbuster and Holocaust. He's got a feel for language, salting the dialogue with Yiddish expressions and accents that make the settings and people seem so real.

I hadn't seen or read anything by Green in years, not since Holocaust. I'd read that he was working in TV somewhere and wasn't writing anymore. I found this book, The Chains on sale for a quarter at the library and picked it up right away. One of my favorite characters appeared in the story, Dr. Sam Abelman. He had a minor role but it was nice to "see" him again.

I enjoyed the book ... until the last hundred pages. Dr. Abelman's nephew was out to write a book about the Chains and their rise from dire poverty to gangsterism and bootlegging to respectability. I think we could have done without the ineffective author wanna-be and just told the family's story. So much of it was devoted to the founder, Jake Chain, who started out hauling wagons--a seemingly dumb ox with a good heart and very little money to support his wife and child. Circumstances change and he becomes a union shtarker--he beats people up--and from there gets involved with all kinds of nefarious enterprises. Throughout his tough life, there are many attempts on Crazy Jake's life--and in the end, he's betrayed by someone he knows.

Well, it should have been the end. As far as I'm concerned, that's where the story ended. Jake's son Mort was a lesser character in the story. He started his own bootlegging business and built himself an empire, eventually bringing dad Jake in as a partner. The focus was still always on Jake and once he was gone, I found it hard to care about Mort or the son who made the family go legit, Martin.

The last hundred pages were very boring to me.

Still, it was nice to read something by Green again.