EUGENE NADELMAN

A novel in verse inspired by Pushkin’s classic Eugene Onegin, with dungeons, dragons, Yiddishkeit, summer camp, and a 1980s soundtrack.

Weingrad, a professor of Judaic studies at Portland State University, has followed his American Hebrew Literature: Writing Jewish National Identity in the United States with a horse of a different color: a tribute to his Philadelphia childhood following the form of Alexander Pushkin’s verse classic, 389 14-line stanzas of iambic tetrameter with the rhyme scheme aBaBccDDeFFeGG and a storyline that’s a takeoff from the original. The poem itself offers a sage assessment of this effort: “I will say this: check any shelf, you / Won’t find a better novelette / In Pushkin sonnet form that’s set / In early 80s Philadelphia.” Though it’s a bit surprising that this unusual work managed to find its way outside the author’s circle, now that it’s here, it may well amuse those with connections to the period and/or the milieu and those who appreciate literary wordplay, though only those with a serious background in Dungeons & Dragons will be able to make heads or tails of Chapter 2, “The Duel.” In Weingrad’s version, Eugene Nadelman falls in love with a brown-eyed girl he meets at his cousin’s bar mitzvah; falls out with a friend while trying to impress said lady with his skill at battle; has some key coming-of-age experiences at a Jewish summer camp in the Poconos (“Among the mountains day is dawning. / Within the bunk twelve kids are yawning. / The PA starts up with a crash / Then warbles Crosby, Stills & Nash”); and ends with an exhortation to the reader to recall and enjoy the memories of their own adolescence. In the middle, an “interlude” addressed to the author’s brother (“But, Aaron, know / I’m thinking of you. Love you, bro”) emphasizes the friends-and-family vibe of the work.

A clever party trick.