Daniel Fuchs was—is—a writer who turned out a handful of wonderful stories in the late Thirties and early Forties (notably The Williamsburg Trilogy), then went out to Hollywood and, as far as the reading public was concerned, virtually dropped out of sight. Since Fuchs was one of the great discoveries of my youth, I came to this collection with a special anticipation—which was more than fulfilled. The early short stories printed here prove to be miniatures which, steeped though they are in a specific period of American history (the Depression), a specific locale (Jewish Brooklyn), and a vanished vernacular, escape categorization and become metaphors for the human condition.
Included here are five stories from the Thirties, three excellent memoirs, and four stories about Fuchs’s Hollywood years. Like The Williamsburg Trilogy, the five stories from the Thirties present us with an array of Depression losers. We are back to lives lived on roofs on hot summer nights, barber shops open until midnight, bookies, trolleys, the Automat, and the Third Avenue EL
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