`DARK,' BIZARRE CHARACTERS VS. BAMBI IN THE BRONX; AUTHOR'S MEMOIR A COMING-OF-AGE TALE WITH A TWIST.Byline: Scott Holleran Special to the Daily News Jerome Charyn's novel ``Darlin' Bill,'' about Wild Bill Hickok Not to be confused with William "Wild Bill" Hickok, American football player. James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876), better known as Wild Bill Hickok, was a legendary figure in the American Old West. , received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, honorary academy of notable American artists, writers, and composers. The National Institute of Arts and Letters, founded in 1898, served as the parent body for the American Academy of Arts and Letters, founded in . His new book is a memoir about growing up in the Bronx as the son of immigrants during World War II. In ``The Dark Lady From Belorusse,'' Charyn describes an alluring, unusual woman who most influenced his youth - his mother, Faigele. Charyn begins by recalling the days, in 1942, when he was 5. During a stroll with his mother to the post office, he relishes the ``shimmering shim·mer intr.v. shim·mered, shim·mer·ing, shim·mers 1. To shine with a subdued flickering light. See Synonyms at flash. 2. outline of my mother in her silver fox coat.'' He remembers it as ``a darkly romantic time.'' The war makes people uneasy. There is talk of attack squads arriving in little rubber boats off some tricky submarine, and Faigele grows increasingly alarmed at the fate of a loved one back in White Russia White Russia: see Belarus. . Childhood is not easy for the son of an immigrant; kindergarten is canceled due to a teacher shortage, Jerome's father is consumed by his work producing fur-lined coats, gangsters and corrupt politicians run the Bronx, and unspoken secrets hang over the family. His parents' marriage is loveless, and his mother starts dealing poker for mob bosses. Jerome contracts ringworm ringworm or tinea (tĭn`ēə), superficial eruption of the skin caused by a fungus, chiefly Microsporum, Trichophyton, or Epidermophyton. . His sole refuge from misery is his mother's aura of glamour and excitement. Together, they attempt to learn English by reading ``Bambi.'' If Jerome identifies with the defenseless creature, it is because his life is like Bambi in the Bronx. ``The Dark Lady'' is especially promising in the first few chapters. Charyn's witty and precise writing foretell fore·tell tr.v. fore·told , fore·tell·ing, fore·tells To tell of or indicate beforehand; predict. fore·tell a happy ending; he obviously survived ringworm (there were no German sub attacks on the Bronx, either), and he mastered the language. But as he introduces the array of people in his mother's life, from tough guy Chick and the sudden appearance of his brother to Darcy the dentist, the memoir slowly turns tragic. Faigele is Chick's mistress. His father sleeps with prostitutes. His brother is nearly neglected to death. Darcy the dentist is also a big gangster; he winds up dying in prison, quoting Anton Chekhov and finally resting near author Herman Melville. The bizarre characters, including Charyn's mother, become pathetic. Their charm wears thin. The dark lady no longer is a victim thrust into action as a poker tramp because her husband can't work - she chooses to sacrifice her marriage and children to her association with gangsters. Charyn seems to romanticize ro·man·ti·cize v. ro·man·ti·cized, ro·man·ti·ciz·ing, ro·man·ti·ciz·es v.tr. To view or interpret romantically; make romantic. v.intr. To think in a romantic way. his mother's lifestyle and, therefore, his own endangerment. There is neither charm nor allure in a mother's abandonment of her child to a life among thugs. Oddly enough, the dark lady remains an enigma throughout the book; a curiously tragic woman, mythic only to the author. Charyn's final words proclaim a fitting summary of his strange childhood with the Dark Lady From Belorusse: ``everybody got out of our way.'' At best, Charyn's memoir captures the glory of emerging self-awareness during youth. He leaves an indelible impression of a vulnerable child who is on the brink of perceiving his relationship to the world. One wonders how much more interesting his memoir might have been had he written less an homage than an elegy elegy, in Greek and Roman poetry, a poem written in elegiac verse (i.e., couplets consisting of a hexameter line followed by a pentameter line). The form dates back to 7th cent. B.C. in Greece and poets such as Archilochus, Mimnermus, and Tytraeus. . ``The Dark Lady From Belorusse'' by Jerome Charyn Jerome Charyn (born 1937) is an American novelist. Charyn was born in the Bronx area of New York and was educated at Columbia (BA, 1959). He has written 37 novels including three memoirs about his childhood in the Bronx, The Dark Lady from Belorusse, (106 pages, St. Martin's St. Martin's or St. Martins may refer to:
Our rating: Three Stars CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Jerome Charyn ``The Dark Lady From Belorusse'' |
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