false 196564 13 "In 1944, I was aware of three youth groups committed to the compelling idea of an independent Jewish state: Hashomer Hatza'ir (The Young Guard), Young Judaea, and Habonim (The Builders).<br><br>Hashomer Hatza'ir was resolutely Marxist. According to intriguing reports I had heard, it was the custom, on their kibbutzim already established in Palestine, for boys and girls under the age of eighteen to shower together. Hashomer Hatza'ir members in Montreal included a boy I shall call Shloime Schneiderman, a high-school classmate of mine. In 1944, when we were still in eighth grade, Schloime enjoyed a brief celebrity after his photo appeared on the front page of the Montreal Herald. Following a two-cent rise in the price of chocolate bars, he had been a leader in a demonstration, holding high a placard that read: down with the 7cents chocolate bar. Hashomer Hatza'ir members wore uniforms at their meetings: blue shirts and neckerchiefs. "They had real court martials," wrote Marion Magid in a memoir about her days in Habonim in the Bronx in the early fifties, "group analysis, the girls were not allowed to wear lipstick." Whereas, in my experience, the sweetly scented girls who belonged to Young Judaea favored pearls and cashmere twinsets. They lived on leafy streets in the suburb of Outremont, in detached cottages that had heated towel racks, basement playrooms, and a plaque hanging on the wall behind the wet bar testifying to the number of trees their parents had paid to have planted in Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel.<br><br>I joined Habonim -- the youth group of a Zionist political party, rooted in socialist doctrine -- shortly after my bar mitzvah, during my first year at Baron Byng High School. I had been recruited by a Room 41 classmate whom I shall call Jerry Greenfeld..." 190111 25 9 1997 Barney's Version total:221|5:89|4:99|3:26|2:5|1:2| 221 931 349 36 5 1 false false Wed May 23 16:52:31 -0700 2007 Thu May 24 22:32:39 -0700 2007
He has so many extra little jokes in it, from the footnotes later added to Barn...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Dec 04 11:14:17 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 12:57:34 -0800 2008 Barney's Version is structured as an autobiography of a bitter old curmudgeon. Barney, the titular protagonist, is trying to proclaim his innocence - both of the crime of murdering his friend Boogie (for which he had been acquitted, by the law) and of the more general charge of being a bast...more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Mar 12 03:04:04 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 12 03:07:30 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Mon Jan 20 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Mon Feb 04 09:50:29 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 09:52:04 -0800 2008 I have a...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Sep 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 11:57:42 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 12:03:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Fri Aug 14 04:29:24 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 18:41:26 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Mar 19 18:20:44 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 19 18:22:32 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 18:58:55 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 17:44:03 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Oct 01 11:22:31 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 11:23:03 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 02:35:59 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 02:36:58 -0700 2009 had to stop so no rating]]> 5 1 false false Fri Jan 23 14:49:26 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 14:50:25 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 10 14:16:38 -0800 2007 Mon Jan 14 09:16:18 -0800 2008
I did like the way the focus switched from the past to the present and how different pieces of his story were d...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 22 15:43:01 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 15:43:40 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sat May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Sun Nov 01 11:19:48 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 11:20:43 -0800 2009 1 4 0 false false Sat Jan 24 19:18:22 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 24 19:18:22 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 24 21:32:42 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 04 20:49:05 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 29 09:20:45 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 09:21:09 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Aug 13 13:03:24 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 08:05:02 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Mon Feb 09 20:33:23 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 20:33:43 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Mar 25 10:28:39 -0700 2009 Mon May 04 12:51:06 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=196564