Harry Kaplan's Adventures Underground

by Steve Stern

When floods leave town cemeteries unfit for his grandmother's burial and with his parents distracted, young Harry slips out nights to explore Memphis' shady Beale Street

310 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1991

About the author

Stern was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1947, the son of a grocer. He left Memphis in the 1960s to attend college, then to travel the US and Europe — living, as he told one interviewer, "the wayward life of my generation for about a decade," and ending on a hippie commune in the Ozarks. He went on to study writing in the graduate program at the University of Arkansas, at a time when it included several notable writers who've since become prominent, including poet C.D. Wright and fiction writers Ellen Gilchrist, Lewis Nordan, Lee K. Abbott and Jack Butler.

Stern subsequently moved to London, England, before returning to Memphis in his thirties to accept a job at a local folklore center. There he learned about the city's old Jewish ghetto, The Pinch, and began to steep himself in Yiddish folklore. He published his first book, the story collection Isaac and the Undertaker's Daughter, which was based in The Pinch, in 1983. It won the Pushcart Writers' Choice Award and acclaim from some notable critics, including Susan Sontag, who praised the book's "brio ... whiplash sentences ... energy and charm," and observed that "Steve Stern may be a late practitioner of the genre [Yiddish folklore], but he is an expert one."

By decade's end Stern had won the O. Henry Award, two Pushcart Prize awards, published more collections, including Lazar Malkin Enters Heaven (which won the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish American Fiction) and the novel Harry Kaplan's Adventures Underground, and was being hailed by critics such as Cynthia Ozick as the successor to Isaac Bashevis Singer. Stern's 2000 collection The Wedding Jester won the National Jewish Book Award, and his novel The Angel of Forgetfulness was named one of the best books of 2005 by The Washington Post.

Stern, who teaches at Skidmore College, has also won some notable scholarly awards, including fellowships from the Fulbright and the Guggenheim foundations. He currently lives in Ballston Spa, New York, and his latest work, the novel The Frozen Rabbi, was published in 2010.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steve Stern is one of my favorite authors. I have thoroughly enjoyed the other books of his that I have read. So, when it was my turn to choose for (Jewish) book club, I took the opportunity to introduce others to Stern's work. I didn't want to choose something I already read; I wanted something that would be new to me as well. And because Jewish-American literature tends to be centered in either New York or the Old World shtetl, I chose "Harry Kaplan. . ." in order to bring us Jews in the rest of America.

Pretty soon, I began to doubt my decision. Stern's use of Southern Black dialect, and his repeated offerings of "darkies" and "shvartzers," was disconcerting, to say the least. While it obviously has legitimate literary justification, it still offends 21st century sensibilities. Indeed, I became convinced that I would never be allowed to choose another book for book club. To my relief, the book was well received by the group, and a lively discussion ensued about the use of dialect, racial sensibilities, and the search for authenticity (something I have found in other works by Stern).

With that anxiety out of the way, I have come to appreciate this novel, enjoying the story and themes, though not quite so much as his other pieces, which I find to be more "magical." I am convinced that the only thing standing in the way of "Harry Kaplan" being equally bewitching is the dialect and racial caricature - if those two things were toned down, this book would have been marvelous. Still, I continue to appreciate Steve Stern as an author and (I feel) kindred spirit, and will continue to read his work until I have consumed it all.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a brilliant and hilarious book. I read it one summer during down time helping to build a house. Long, winding, sentences, catalogs almost, give Stern the template he needs to craft perhaps his greatest set piece, the Kaplan pawn shop. This is also the Stern novel which manages to balance its examination of Jewish culture best with another setting, pre-War Memphis. The story of the man who literally talked himself to death, first brought up in the final story of Lazar Malkin, is fleshed out here wonderfully; a motif self-destructive and doubtful, pure Stern. Also look out for a wonderfully understated deflation of the lead up to WWII that Stern sneaks in there.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harry Kaplan's Adventures Underground by Steve Stern is Jewish, southern literature. Emphasis on Jewish. If you do not know at least a smattering of Yiddish, and Hebrew as well as something of the traditions associated with Judaism and how it was practiced by poorer European immigrants to America, much of this book will be unintelligible. Then there is the issue of how lower class / lower caste Blacks in literally the back waters of pre WWII Memphis are described and referred to and their dialect atempted. Either park your 21st century sensitivities and pay closer attention or you will be too offended to bother to follow the novel. If it helps virtually every one is a stereotype regardless of race creed or color. Even a brief exposure to 1930’s Memphis high society shows us that everyone can be a stereotype.

For whoever is left, Harry Kaplan is recommended reading. I had not realized that this was my second Steve Stern book, but it will not be my last.

Exactly what this is beyond Jewish Southern literature is yet another problem. The author is being called the next Isaac Singer. He might be, but I lack the creds to make that call. Some will call this a bildungsroman. They may be right, but I am not sure our protagonist undergoes that much growth. I rather like the notion of this being a modernist inversion of an upside-down carnival ride version of Tom Sawyer, so let’s go with that.

Hary Kaplan, our narrator and protagonist is a boy, either pre-teen or at most early teens. His is the son of a Jewish immigrant family, busily not achieving the American Dream. His father certainly has a dream self, but as a business man he is a serial failure. The story briefly has the Kaplans living in the New York Jewish quarters. At the urgings of a clearly shady uncle, they join him in Memphis. The Kaplans wind up living the Memphis Jewish Quarter, known as the Pinch. Dad becomes a pawnbroker, with a reputation for trading cash for almost anything anyone, especially anyone with a fabulas story and a desperate need for cash.

Harry is not so much spoiled as he is ignored. He is bookish, friendless and in no hurry to be social.

Then comes the Flood of 1937. This was a historic incident and, on the side, rather makes the point that a weak government cannot do much to help when virtually the entire population become victimized and rendered destitute.

At the end of Beale street where his father has his shop the flood waters leave a lake. It divides Harry’s world from the Underworld. Straining the analogy he befriends Twin Black boy (age uncertain) who ferry him across into the underworld. It is the land of Memphis’ Black population. Harry’s friends, are highly conversant with all of the illegal actors and activities. In fact, they were raised by the local madam, a black woman of prodigious size and employed by her as runners. They collect debts, deliver messages and generally make themselves useful to a broad selection of the illegal trade.

Harry begins to live a double life. Barely present in this family and school, during the day his nights become consumed with his travels across the flood waters. Harry, is a watcher, wise in keeping to the background on his adventures. A white boy is going to stand out in this society, but he is initially accepted because of his father’s reputation as a reliable source of cash. Keeping with the idea that everyone is a stereotype: A black gambler asks to rub his hair for good luck. Disappointed to find that his hair is as coarse and kinky as might be found on a black man, the problem is explained away: "He is not white, He is Jewrish".

Harry Kaplan's Adventures Underground is interesting, frustrating, too long and ends just as other things are happening. Making this a slice of life. Loose ends, at least lose ends in the Jewish community are tied off. Harry remains a person living inside himself. We cannot know what or how he was changed having adventured in the underground. If that new info does not dissuade you, the book is worth the read.

[Holly Troup · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the Great Flood of the 1930's transforms Memphis into a water bazaar of earthly delights, Harry Kaplan forsakes his book-fed fantasy world and joins a pair of street-wise black twins who introduce him to the legendary Beale Street. Brilliant Bildungsroman, a great frolic.