Copied and extended from my newsletter, ft. minor spoilers.
I was gifted a copy of Binele by by B. J. Bialostotzky and translated by Ruth Murphy and it was in fact excellent! A few times while reading, I found myself wishing I understood Yiddish so I could check on what might be literal and what might be more of a translation quirk or embellishment. The book in general, with its episodic nature (it was originally published chapter by chapter), is well suited to put down and pick back up at your leisure.
The neither-here-nor-there-niks that Binele runs into on his way are great, as are (of course) his guide Eliyahu and Binele himself. Except the “wonders that are terrifying” like the river that bubbles up eyeballs and the goblet of blood. What the fuck (meant admiringly, of course).
And when he gets there--! I am fascinated that the land of endless yontif is not a place of davening but a place where the drugery is done by robots! This book thinks more about work in a magical land than most contemporary fantasy novels do, and it would be interesting to compare it to later (though still vintage) utopian and dystopian novels.
And, from earlier in the book, the fact that moshiach exists and was an old person's hope and now we have the young person's hope of drudgeless-work-but-still-work--! i dunno, it's interesting.
I would love for one of the more messed-up-positive animation studios to adapt this into a movie or perhaps a series. Not sure I’d recommend this story for actual children unless you read it first or your kid is particularly about weird creepy stuff, but for adults? heck yeah.