jdavidhacker1 reviewed Tribe (Paperbacks from Hell) by Grady Hendrix
None
5 stars
The Tribe exceeded and defied expectations. While theoretically we have a horror story about a Golem and the murders its used to commit, what we really have is a complex story of human relationships, with horrors much more familiar. The judgment and prejudice faced not only by minorities, but between minorities features heavily throughout. How people of color (especially at the time) are othered and seen as dangerous or monstrous themselves, with one of our protagonists being massive like our monster only reinforcing that, not just by the minority but by the Jewish population at the time. How that fear and hate by the Jewish population is a direct result of not just the unresolvable trauma of World War 2, but also by the antisemitism they faced both before and after the war. There are some great implicit and explicit analogies between these experiences drawn throughout, with imagery and reflections …
The Tribe exceeded and defied expectations. While theoretically we have a horror story about a Golem and the murders its used to commit, what we really have is a complex story of human relationships, with horrors much more familiar. The judgment and prejudice faced not only by minorities, but between minorities features heavily throughout. How people of color (especially at the time) are othered and seen as dangerous or monstrous themselves, with one of our protagonists being massive like our monster only reinforcing that, not just by the minority but by the Jewish population at the time. How that fear and hate by the Jewish population is a direct result of not just the unresolvable trauma of World War 2, but also by the antisemitism they faced both before and after the war. There are some great implicit and explicit analogies between these experiences drawn throughout, with imagery and reflections on the ghettos, and the idea that just like one can leave the ghetto in which one lives but not the one in the mind, the same is true of the camps.returnWe see gentle men, capable of but abhorring violence, on both sides of the divide struggle to overcome these barriers. Which is perhaps some of the best and most touching writing Wood does. The depictions of love shared between them, the love of father's and sons, of surrogate fathers, of men in community together or traumatized together is exceptional. Sometimes even verging on the, likely unrealized and closeted, homosexual. How lost we can be in recovering, rebuilding, or making amends when those relationships are damaged or broken is heartrendingly portrayed here as well.returnI don't know that I'd enthusiastically recommend this to a lot of horror fans...The violence is limited, brief, and if it were a movie it would be revealed to us only in rapid flash cuts. However, as a snapshot of culture at a particular time in new york, as a beautiful piece about human relationships, I can't recommend it strongly enough.
