BLESSED HANDS

Halpern offers a soulful collection of short stories, translated from the Yiddish.

The narrator of the story “Blessed Hands” uses her hands as a masseuse, bringing healing to those who need it, but also as a means of making money (“God wanted these same hands to draw their livelihood from touching the human body”). Her mother had to sell her breast milk, leaving none for her children. This story showcases the themes that will propel the stories that follow: healing, spirituality, family, and persevering through poverty. A butcher does not want his son to take on the family business, fearing he’ll be trapped in an identity framed by poverty and hard labor (“Hello, Butch”). In “The Last Breakfast,” a mother sends her son away to grow, change, and learn to be a man, but he meets a grisly fate. In both stories, a parent believes they must send their child away to have a better future, an idea they ultimately realize was wrong in one way or another. A girl who can’t walk without braces and crutches enjoys winter as a time when she can throw snowballs at other kids and finally play with them (“Snowballs”). A woman who has been trapped in a tomb of loneliness finds community and warmth at a leftist political meeting in “Comrade Bashe.” These two stories effectively convey the yearning of the characters for human connection. In other slice-of-life narratives, a shoemaker spends his days laboring away for minimal reward to keep his family fed and happy and is told a story by a religious scholar about the power of hard work (“Munye the Shoemaker and Baruch Spinoza”), and young women wait for news of their husbands away at war while they work and exchange letters to keep their spirits up (“Faces”). With these stories of ordinary people, Halpern demonstrates a sincere understanding of her characters. The pieces collected here were translated from Yiddish by Taub, who contributes a well-thought-out and researched afterword illuminating Halpern’s life and literary artistry, giving readers a fuller experience of her work.

A fascinating short story collection offering glimpses into the lives of those usually unobserved.