{"product_id":"from-the-old-marketplace-9780674325043","title":"From the Old Marketplace","description":"\u003cp\u003eA young Jewish boythe old  much-fought-over city of Vilniusthe rumblings and then the reality of World War Iall combine in this book to create a striking historical document of a period during which Europe and the Western world were changed forever. In the streets and alleys of Vilnius actor Joseph Buloff came of age  learning the arts of shape-altering necessary for survival during successive occupations by Cossacks  Germans  Bolsheviks  and Poles; it is this fascinating vanished milieu that he brings to life in From the Old Marketplace.  For a little boy  the old marketplace was full of enchantment  a world in itself  and Buloff brilliantly describes the eccentric inhabitants who peopled his childhood: Berchick the orphan  Barves son the intellectual and historian  the starveling Matzek  Arkashka the Cossack  Josephs mother  the saintly yet practical Sarah  and his father  Benjamin  who made a fortune in America and lost it again in Europe.  The boy came to realize his own Jewishness when Russian persecution forced the Jews to make the synagogue the center of their world. He was driven by brutality  hunger  and ostracism to transform himself in spirit into the imaginary Chantille Jeantaigne Delacroix  scourge of evil  avenger of his people  Conqueror of Death. Josephs accounts of daily life under unbelievably hard circumstances range from down-to-earth facts to soaring flights of fantasyand his desperate acting in order to stay alive brought him his true vocation  first on the scrounging amateur stage and then in the professional theatre.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67923739213877,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674325044","price":66.46,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674325043.jpg?v=1794113288","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/from-the-old-marketplace-9780674325043","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}