Grave Dancing On Two Left Feet, starts in the early twentieth century, Ukraine. The story is narrated by Velvel, whose grandfather, Beryl Blittstein is a Jew black marketer, forced to bribe the Cossacks.
Dimitri has bribed to become a Cossack and collects tax from the Jews. As the story progresses, the relationship between Blittstein and Dimitri deteriorates, and things start to get ugly. The betrayal and disputes between them result in disputes between thier sons. And soon Velvel's father, Chaim, along with his family has to flee to Montreal. But their traumatic past keeps haunting their family. Amidst the horrors of holocaust and pogroms, the narrator and his sister grow up in a melancholic environment, Velvel becoming lonely and anxious while his sister, Maya is the exact opposite; exuberant and adventurous.
All of the characters in this book were beautifully crafted and they felt so real. Raphael Burdman's writing is truly insightful. He beautifully describes how the emotional legacy of a family is passed on the next generation, affecting their lives. Since the story was dark and emotional, it was a bit difficult to read but overall, it was a wonderful book.

"Our ancestral past [is] hidden deep inside us...there are often fine strands of emotion that gnaw at us...link us to a past we may not know, haunting us in ways we cannot fathom."

Ukraine, early twentieth century. "Grandfather [Beryl Blittstein] was considered a kluger, the wise man of his small shtetl...could take a couple of men with irreconcilable business differences...frequently...turn business competitors into partners...he had a penchant for arguing what was fair and what not...maybe that was his downfall." Buying and selling on the black market was "a way of doing business for a whole swath of Odessa citizenry...he was a law-abiding businessman, one forced to bribe Cossacks and cops...".

Lance Corporal Dimitri Alexandrov bribed his way into the Cossacks. No longer considered to be a simple Russian peasant, he was now part of an elite royal guard, however, he was inwardly fearful and uncertain. Dimitri was the tax collector for the Jews from the shtetl. He enjoyed an easy banter with Blittstein. "Even if he is a Zhid, a man with twinkles of laughter in his eyes while haggling, he listens when [we] talk heart to heart." Dimitri Alexandrov, considered to be a bottom feeder, was victimized by his Cossack superiors. He must be careful to live up to the Cossack code. When Blittstein insisted on maintaining his "high and mighty moral ground... he became a lamb, sacrificed on the altar of Dimitri's ambition." An altercation between fathers Blittstein and Alexandrov followed an accidental betrayal and altercation between sons Chaim and Alexei. Mrs. Blittstein and her children hurriedly fled to Montreal.

"A single incident...traumatic...a flimsy foundation upon which to base one family's entire edifice of unhappiness...there were demons buried in our family basement...the unspeakable." "My father [Chaim] would share his grief with any and everyone...But he couldn't share his guilt, yet the two were inextricably linked." "The feeling he was at fault had been driven so deep, it couldn't be uprooted." Chaim was a "showman" of sympathy. He dwelt on yesterday and dreaded tomorrow, while mother was a martyr, suffering in silence. Raised in this melancholic atmosphere, the twins has different aberrant behavior. The daughter was always "stirring up a storm", always running in harm's way, a crusader needing to be far from home. The son, and our narrator, grew up with a debilitating sense of despair, was lonely and self-isolating.

In "Grave Dancing on Two Left Feet" by Rafael Burdman, "one generation's emotional legacy though strictly speaking not genetic, may be passed down to the next with just as powerful and certain an impact if embedded in DNA...".

In this read, our narrator tried "to stay emotionally afloat" in a family that generationally was filled with "lousy little parasites of anxiety having a great old time dancing inside [one's body]." This proved to be a difficult, uncomfortable read. Could any family members break free of the stranglehold of melancholy? Since laughter and tears are opposite sides of a coin, why not add some belly laughs to help ward off the doldrums?

Thank you Guernica Editions and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow... This is one crazy book... this is a lot to process because there was a lot to it. Overall a good book.