Newark Minutemen: A Reader's Guide
A Reader’s Guide
Newark Minutemen by Leslie K. Barry
Set between the Great wars in 1930s Newark, New Jersey, Newark Minutemen layers a star crossed love affair doomed for failure over the backdrop of a country ripped apart by economic turmoil of the Great Depression.
Leslie K. Barry’s richly imagined based-on-true novel begins in 1933 America at the triple bewitching hour of Hitlers reign, FDRs presidency and the dusk of prohibition. Through the eyes of the character, the reader looks on as the young protagonist, Yael Newman, witnesses his father branded with a Swastika by German American Nazis at the Newark bootlegging docks.
The perspective then changes to the young German Immigrant Krista Brecht who watches her father burn down a bookstore in Newark as he beats his uniformed chest.
At the time, Americans were divided between a socialist vs fascist approach to healing America’s economic woes. The fascist activities were often dangerous and manipulative but government’s hands were tied by first amendment rights. As a result, most Americans ignored marchers and rallies. What Depression-struck Americans had not realized was that Nazi Germany had planted seeds in America many years before Germany had fired a bullet to begin WW2.
With a self-proclaimed American HItler at the helm, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant living in New York, the Reich created a multi-million dollar national presence called the German-American Bund. Kuhn managed and unified tens of thousands of American-Nazi Bund members into hundreds of cells in every American city and managed 25 Nazi youth camps across the US. These camps indoctrinated youth with Nazi ideology, culture and military training. Kuhn’s six-company corporation generated millions. He exploited US resources like the NRA and National guard to equip his army with guns and training. Later, the FBI tracked millions of dollars in leading banks to Germany that proved ties between the American Bund and German Nazis.
Finally the FBI approached the Jewish mafia, one of the few factions during the depression with money and power. The G-men engaged the mafia to join in an unholy alliance to help thwart the rising Nazi party.
The most promising weapon for the mafia was a band of Jewish boxers in Newark, NJ. They were managed by the enchanting Mob King, Longie Zwillman who was often referred to as the Gatsby of gangsters. The Newark Minutemen trained to fight the Nazis taking over America. They were called up at a moments notice to topple rallies and infiltrate the German-American Bund.
In the story, the reader then joins Yael five years after his traumatic experience. In a life driven by avenge, tempered by justice, he joins the Newark Minutemen. During one of the fights he knocks into Krista Brecht, the daughter of a German-American Nazi high command. Their paths cross again and he and his sidekick Harry Levine take Krista and her sister on a night to remember. The tension between their worlds turns from innocent into an explosive rumble and vendetta between the Minutemen and a gang of young American Nazis.
As a romance between Yael and Krista form, the world pulls them apart. At the most basic level, Yael struggles against a life of racism. Further, Krista’s world wants Yael’s people dead. Coming full circle, Yael is recruited to go undercover and bring down the German-American Bund and it’s leader. Then he learns the gut-wrenching truth about who killed his father. In a twist, Krista's identity spirals when she learns her own truths.
In Newark Minutemen Leslie K. Barry writes with a historical sweep and intimacy that are skillfully combined through four character’s narrations—Yael, Krista, gangster Longie Zwillman and Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn. Through different voices, the reader gains perspective from all sides, creeping empathy into uncomfortable places. As the novel explores the convulsive collision of history and romance, readers take a chilling look at devastating events that were occurring in America, including the greatest enemy of all—complacency.
Questions for Discussion
The discussion questions that follow are designed to enliven your group's discussion of Leslie K. Barry’s extraordinary new novel, Newark Minutemen.
1. What effects does Barry achieve by blending personal history and historical fact?
2. Why has this history buried in American history? Why has it never been told?
3. What is the effect of the story beginning and ending with the the same moment of Presidents Day 1939?
4. How would the world be different if Fuhrer Kuhn and the German American Bund had achieved their objectives?
5. How does Yael reconcile accepting someone who is supposed to be his mortal enemy? How does Krista deal with her identity during the impending relationship?
6. What are the most difficult images in the story? Physical? Emotional?
7. How do you feel about the Yael’s journey of avenge? What are the moral complexities of right and wrong in this story?
8. What motivates Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn? What makes home charismatic to his followers? What makes Longie Zwillman charismatic? How are these two alike and different?
9. In what ways are Longie and the mafia heroic? How do they respond to the crises? How are they able to bring their community together?
10. What do the historical details and cameos of the story add?
11. Much is at stake in Newark Minutemen— the fate of America's minorities especially Jews, the larger fate of Europe and of Western civilization, but also how America will define itself. What does the novel suggest about what it means to be an American, and to be a Jewish American?
12. What does the flashforward to the end of ww2 add to the novel?
13. Hatred is timeless. What is relevance in this story to hatred in society today?
Newark Minutemen by Leslie K. Barry
Set between the Great wars in 1930s Newark, New Jersey, Newark Minutemen layers a star crossed love affair doomed for failure over the backdrop of a country ripped apart by economic turmoil of the Great Depression.
Leslie K. Barry’s richly imagined based-on-true novel begins in 1933 America at the triple bewitching hour of Hitlers reign, FDRs presidency and the dusk of prohibition. Through the eyes of the character, the reader looks on as the young protagonist, Yael Newman, witnesses his father branded with a Swastika by German American Nazis at the Newark bootlegging docks.
The perspective then changes to the young German Immigrant Krista Brecht who watches her father burn down a bookstore in Newark as he beats his uniformed chest.
At the time, Americans were divided between a socialist vs fascist approach to healing America’s economic woes. The fascist activities were often dangerous and manipulative but government’s hands were tied by first amendment rights. As a result, most Americans ignored marchers and rallies. What Depression-struck Americans had not realized was that Nazi Germany had planted seeds in America many years before Germany had fired a bullet to begin WW2.
With a self-proclaimed American HItler at the helm, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant living in New York, the Reich created a multi-million dollar national presence called the German-American Bund. Kuhn managed and unified tens of thousands of American-Nazi Bund members into hundreds of cells in every American city and managed 25 Nazi youth camps across the US. These camps indoctrinated youth with Nazi ideology, culture and military training. Kuhn’s six-company corporation generated millions. He exploited US resources like the NRA and National guard to equip his army with guns and training. Later, the FBI tracked millions of dollars in leading banks to Germany that proved ties between the American Bund and German Nazis.
Finally the FBI approached the Jewish mafia, one of the few factions during the depression with money and power. The G-men engaged the mafia to join in an unholy alliance to help thwart the rising Nazi party.
The most promising weapon for the mafia was a band of Jewish boxers in Newark, NJ. They were managed by the enchanting Mob King, Longie Zwillman who was often referred to as the Gatsby of gangsters. The Newark Minutemen trained to fight the Nazis taking over America. They were called up at a moments notice to topple rallies and infiltrate the German-American Bund.
In the story, the reader then joins Yael five years after his traumatic experience. In a life driven by avenge, tempered by justice, he joins the Newark Minutemen. During one of the fights he knocks into Krista Brecht, the daughter of a German-American Nazi high command. Their paths cross again and he and his sidekick Harry Levine take Krista and her sister on a night to remember. The tension between their worlds turns from innocent into an explosive rumble and vendetta between the Minutemen and a gang of young American Nazis.
As a romance between Yael and Krista form, the world pulls them apart. At the most basic level, Yael struggles against a life of racism. Further, Krista’s world wants Yael’s people dead. Coming full circle, Yael is recruited to go undercover and bring down the German-American Bund and it’s leader. Then he learns the gut-wrenching truth about who killed his father. In a twist, Krista's identity spirals when she learns her own truths.
In Newark Minutemen Leslie K. Barry writes with a historical sweep and intimacy that are skillfully combined through four character’s narrations—Yael, Krista, gangster Longie Zwillman and Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn. Through different voices, the reader gains perspective from all sides, creeping empathy into uncomfortable places. As the novel explores the convulsive collision of history and romance, readers take a chilling look at devastating events that were occurring in America, including the greatest enemy of all—complacency.
Questions for Discussion
The discussion questions that follow are designed to enliven your group's discussion of Leslie K. Barry’s extraordinary new novel, Newark Minutemen.
1. What effects does Barry achieve by blending personal history and historical fact?
2. Why has this history buried in American history? Why has it never been told?
3. What is the effect of the story beginning and ending with the the same moment of Presidents Day 1939?
4. How would the world be different if Fuhrer Kuhn and the German American Bund had achieved their objectives?
5. How does Yael reconcile accepting someone who is supposed to be his mortal enemy? How does Krista deal with her identity during the impending relationship?
6. What are the most difficult images in the story? Physical? Emotional?
7. How do you feel about the Yael’s journey of avenge? What are the moral complexities of right and wrong in this story?
8. What motivates Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn? What makes home charismatic to his followers? What makes Longie Zwillman charismatic? How are these two alike and different?
9. In what ways are Longie and the mafia heroic? How do they respond to the crises? How are they able to bring their community together?
10. What do the historical details and cameos of the story add?
11. Much is at stake in Newark Minutemen— the fate of America's minorities especially Jews, the larger fate of Europe and of Western civilization, but also how America will define itself. What does the novel suggest about what it means to be an American, and to be a Jewish American?
12. What does the flashforward to the end of ww2 add to the novel?
13. Hatred is timeless. What is relevance in this story to hatred in society today?
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