Death by Pastrami

In these seventeen wry stories, Bernstein introduces us to the unsung residents of NYC's garment district proud lace sewers, unscrupulous ragmen, and salesmen with a penchant for stolen pens. Bernstein is a master of brevity most stories clock in at under ten pages and he is most concerned with the particulars of human yearning. A man offers a million dollars for a "first-rate" human heart. An engineer chooses the suit he will wear every day for the rest of his life. A funeral salesman discovers the deadly power of the pastrami sandwich. In their breadth, these stories capture a New York that recedes further into memory every year: a garment district populated by people with at least a passing acquaintanceship with the old country and older ways of making things.

• Author
• Leonard S. Bernstein

• Format
• paperback

• Pages
• 151

• Publisher
• University of New Orleans Press

• Language
• english

• ISBN
• 9781608010271

• Genres
• fiction

• Release date
• 2014