Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers by Stanley Elkin
"Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers" by Stanley Elkin is a poignant exploration of grief, flawed relationships, and the complexities of human nature, centered around Jake Greenspahn, the owner of a small supermarket. Set against the backdrop of a community filled with diverse personalities, the story unfolds three weeks after the death of Jake’s son, Harold. Jake navigates his sorrow and disillusionment as he interacts with various characters, including sympathetic yet ineffectual local figures and his own troubled employees. The narrative delves into Jake's internal struggle, revealing his realization that life is riddled with imperfections, including those of his late son.
Throughout the day, Jake grapples with feelings of anger and frustration, particularly when confronted with the disreputable behaviors of others, which he categorizes as either "criers" or "kibitzers." The supermarket serves as a microcosm for the larger world, reflecting themes of loss, regret, and the human tendency to judge others while grappling with one's own flaws. As Jake contemplates his son’s memory and the realities of life, he is forced to confront uncomfortable truths about himself and those around him. The narrative ultimately encourages a nuanced view of humanity's imperfections, inviting readers to reflect on their own relationships and experiences of loss.
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Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers by Stanley Elkin
First published: 1962
Type of plot: Domestic realism, psychological
Time of work: The 1950's
Locale: A street of small stores
Principal Characters:
Jake Greenspahn , an aging store ownerHarold , his deceased sonFrank , his produce man and assistant managerHarold , his porter, an aging African American manAn Irish police officer Margolis , a television store ownerMrs. Frimkin , a customer
The Story
Jake Greenspahn returns to work in his small supermarket saddened and disillusioned by the death of his now idealized son, Harold. The story, told in third person in prose infected by Jake's vision and vocabulary, tracks his thoughts from a rejection of the seamy world to awareness that all mortals, including his Harold, are flawed. As participants in the imperfect processes of life, people must accept imperfections.
Jake, feeling bloated, his belly pressed against the steering wheel of his car, begins his day of disillusionment as he pulls in next to a parking meter. The Irish police officer, who accepts a bribe of two dollars a week to put nickels into parking meters for people who work in the neighborhood, is already giving out tickets. The police officer, aware that Jake's son, Harold, has died, expresses sympathy. He has sent Jake a condolence card, but his good intentions have been thwarted by the tasteless pink heaven depicted on the card and his thoughtless choice of a card bearing the Christian symbol of a cross for a person who is Jewish. When the police officer offers an inadequate excuse for missing the funeral, Jake ironically responds, "Maybe next time." The police officer refuses this week's two dollars from Jake, but Jake is not impressed.
His attitude darkened by his loss of Harold, who was just twenty-three when he died, Jake approaches his small supermarket. Violating Jewish law, which specifies a pine coffin, Jake had Harold buried in a metal casket that the mortician assured him would preserve the body. Still, Jake is intent on following another Jewish law by offering prayers in his son's memory at the synagogue for a year. He encounters Margolis, who owns the television store on the block. Margolis, bemoaning the decline in business during Jake's absence, clumsily tries to be sympathetic. Unimpressed, Jake sourly reviews the state of his supermarket. Frank, his able produce man and assistant manager, attributes the reduced profit during Jake's absence to repercussions from a strike in West Virginia, but Jake suspects that his employees are stealing from him. The African American porter is late, and Howard, Jake's married butcher, and Shirley, the cashier, who has brazenly hung one of her brassieres on Jake's work pants, appear to be lovers. On top of it all, Jake is constipated.
As the workday proceeds, an old woman buys two cans of the on-sale coffee, returning several times and making the same purchase to get around the two-can limit. Siggie, the cheese salesperson, escapes when Jake tries to confront him about the bad cheese he has been delivering. Able to go to lunch because Frank has cramps and does not feel like eating, Jake sits with other store owners but is disturbed when he sees Harold and Shirley having lunch together. The thoughtlessness of his colleagues, including Margolis, who tease their fellow store owner Traub for not picking up any checks, annoys Jake. Traub has three daughters and a son to take care of. Everyone is either a crier or a kibitzer, Jake decides, a complainer or a tease and braggart like Margolis, who boasts about his trick of turning window shoppers into buyers. Jake, who owns the property on which his store and others are located, considers selling.
Still constipated, Jake endures Howard's disrespectful treatment of an old man who buys liver, hoping to sustain his strength. Jake is vexed when Frank shakes down—for ten dollars—a woman who tried to steal a can of salmon. When Jake upbraids Frank, he counters that Jake's son Harold filched five dollars from the cash register and was never punished. Angered by this assault on his dead son's character, Jake fires Frank, only to realize that he cannot do without him, and then apologizes.
The African American porter, also named Harold, finally arrives and overhears the argument. Jake is ready to upbraid old Harold for being late, but Harold explains that he was visiting young Harold's grave. Moreover old Harold has dreamt twice that Frank, not young Harold, was supposed to die, and assures Jake that if he wishes Frank dead, Frank will die. When dreams repeat themselves, they come true.
Jake dismisses the idea, but it further disturbs him. His annoyance turns to rage when Mrs. Frimkin, a doctor's wife who has been saccharinely sympathetic, undertakes to buy a shopping cart full of expensive items but damages a ten-cent loaf of bread in the hope of getting it at a reduced price. Frank tries to reason with Jake, pointing out that the rest of her order more than offsets the pennies lost, but Jake chases Mrs. Frimkin out of the store. He then rushes off himself to pray for his dead son.
That night, Jake Greenspahn dreams of himself, encouraged by the rabbi, trying to pray for young Harold. The rabbi encourages him to imagine his son and then pray, but Jake's efforts are disturbed by thoughts of his disillusioning day. His final vision is of young Harold, with his hand in the till, being caught by Frank.
Bibliography
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Gass, William. Afterword to The Franchiser, by Stanley Elkin. Boston: David Godine, 1980.
MacCaffery, Larry. "Stanley Elkin's Recovery of the Ordinary." Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction 21, no. 2 (1978): 39-51.
Pughe, Thomas. Comic Sense: Reading Robert Coover, Stanley Elkin, Philip Roth. Boston: Birkhäuser Verlag, 1994.
Salzman, Arthur, ed. Review of Contemporary Fiction 15, no. 2 (1995). Special Stanley Elkin issue.