Journalist Sasha Abramsky's seventh book is a warmhearted, frank memoir of his bibliophile grandfather, scholar and collector Chimen Abramsky, and the extraordinary book-filled London home where he lived for 66 years.
Born in Byelorussia in 1916, the son of prominent Orthodox rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky, who served as the chief judge of England's rabbinical court after fleeing Russian persecution in 1931, Chimen rejected Judaism for another religion--Communism--as a young man. But in his case, mere involvement in the activities of the British Communist Party wasn't sufficient. Though lacking a degree from a British university, he went on to become a leading scholar of Marxism and collector of Marxist literature. His books packed every available space in what his grandson calls the House of Books, in North London's Highgate neighborhood. Along with his wife, Mimi, whose cooking prowess Sasha Abramsky lovingly describes, Chimen hosted a salon that became home to some of the most prominent Marxist scholars of the time.
By 1958, however, Chimen, disillusioned by the revelations of Stalin's atrocities and anti-Semitism, had severed his ties with the Communist Party. That repudiation ushered in the second phase of his intellectual life, as his interests pivoted to Jewish literature and Judaica. Eventually, he became Sotheby's leading adviser on rare Jewish manuscripts. Chimen's work with Jewish collectibles highlighted one of the ironies of his life--his strict adherence to Jewish practices like the dietary laws while never abandoning the atheism that had been a hallmark of his Socialist days.
Without a catalogue of his grandfather's library, Abramsky acknowledges that the book count reflected in his title may be imprecise, but as he describes the "staggering" number of books, it's easy to picture the "unfathomable clutter" that defined the home. The book is structured around a tour of its cramped rooms, each one "lined from floor to ceiling with shelves double-stacked with books, with just a few bare spots left in which paintings and photographs hung." Along the way, Abramsky shares fascinating stories of British intellectual luminaries like Eric Hobsbawm and Isaiah Berlin who were regular visitors to 5 Hillway or close friends of his grandfather.
But as much as this book is the story of a life of the mind, it's also a tender account of the way this increasingly dilapidated, book-crammed home became for an adoring grandson, "my school, my university, my library, my sanctuary when the going got tough at home." Balancing that affection with a sense of awe at the story of his grandfather's fascinating life, Sasha Abramsky has produced a work that will appeal to book lovers and readers of family memoir. --Harvey Freedenberg, attorney and freelance reviewer
Shelf Talker: Sasha Abramsky's memoir shares the story of his grandfather's passionate, book-filled life.