The Last of the Just

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

But praised be the Lord, so also somehow.

(For the uninitiated: this is a story about the Jewish legend of the 36 Just Men upon whose existence the world somehow depends, bearers of agony that offsets the build-up to the Day of Judgment---though sometimes a Just Man is said to suffer so much that God moves forward the hour of the Day, to make up for this suffering. Ties in with another Jewish legend/w/e about there being a certain definitive quantity of suffering, the "tears of Esau," that must be felt in history before the Messiah will arrive. So, this-bookwise, the story traces the genealogy and life of one Ernie Levy, from his childhood to death in a gas chamber. The ending is either the most haunting thing I've ever read, or among the most of those.)

[deer of the dawn]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Just

Can you give particulars of what you love or don't love about the book, Mighara? It sounds awesome.

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

There's some specific moments of descriptive wisdom, of the "human condition" or at least the condition of the humans in the story. Ultimately, however, it's the first and the last sections that I was most impacted by, conceptually/emotionally/w/e. The scene in the gas chamber is horribly intense and meaningful...