Adventures of Mottel the Cantor's Son

Plot

"Mottel may have been a young demon to manage, but he is a pleasure to read about. Nothing daunts him. His spirit soars above the cruelties, the world has not grown any gentler since this book was written. Sholom Aleichem's wit and humanity enrich any age and any language."--"New York Times."

Amazon Review: Thanks to Fiddler on the Roof, Sholom Aleichem is known predominantly for creating Tevye the Milkman. But to me, Sholom Aleichem's most enduring character is probably Mottel.

People like to say that Mottel is an ordinary boy with boundless optimism. And, in many ways, they're right. For a boy who sees and understands so much petty and needless cruelty, Mottel is indeed an optimist.

But what strikes me most about Mottel is how accurately he sees his world (warts and all) and how he rebels against its injustices. For Mottel draws. And he draws everything. There is a greenhorn hanging out by the family stand, making a nuisance of himself? Mottel draws him. Brocha of the big feet and bigger mouth makes Mottel's life a misery? Mottel draws her (or rather her giant foot).

And, when Mottel shows his pictures to the people around him, he makes them laugh--and even sometimes to be nicer to each other. (Well, OK--not everyone laughs. The subjects of Mottel's paintings don't usually laugh and Mottel's brother Eli does not laugh. The former--you can guess why; the latter because he does not approve of drawing.)

And so, with his endless pictures (for no matter how often Eli tries to beat the "figures" out of Mottel, Mottel continues to draw them) Mottel resists the endless petty cruelties of big world. And it is this courage that so endears Mottel to me. I want to be more like him--to be able to see the pettiness and the squalor and the misery and, instead of getting needlessly angry to do something about it. And have the "something" even work sometimes.

So yes, this is a hilarious story about an ordinary boy with boundless optimism whose mischief is often a little ray of sunshine in a dark world. But it is also a story about a boy who rebels against needless cruelties. Sometimes successfully.