Book One in the Quartet - Pass In Review
A Historical Fiction Novel
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This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
Jules M. Seletz used his own life, as the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant who spent 45 years as a surgeon and military officer, as the basis for this fictional family. He feels his work should appeal to a wide and diverse readership with its Jewish ethnic background; a strong Military influence; Medical training, including evolution of modern medical technology; prohibition and the Great Depression; the United States participation in the "Wars"; and the cultural changes and technological progress down through the decades. The historical content should be of interest to our student population.
Dr. Seletz graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1953 as a second lieutenant, and the Chicago Medical School in 1958 with an MD. Following five years of post-graduate training at the Boston City Hospital, he practiced as a General and Peripheral Vascular Surgeon for 35 years.
He enjoyed a 41-year military career in the United States Army, rising to the rank of full colonel, having served as a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery in 1953 during the Korean Conflict; and then to Morocco, West Germany, Botswana; and finally to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during Desert Storm as a military surgeon. Retired from the United States Army in 1994 while stationed at West Point, Dr. Seletz is now in his seventh year as a physician surveyor for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations—JCAHO.
JCAHO is the nationally and internationally accepted accrediting body for the Healthcare Industry. For the past four years, Dr. Seletz has had several occasions to survey hospitals who have experienced untoward incidents, mishaps, catastrophic outcomes—sentinel events.
Dr. Seletz lives in Lincoln, New Hampshire, in the heart of the White Mountains where he enjoys skiing and mountain hiking with his wife of Acadian heritage. Together, they have seven children and ten grandchildren.
In addition to the quartet, Pass In Review, that includes Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jacob's Ladder, Jacob's Travels, and Jacob's Novels, historical fiction that mirrors his own life during the twentieth century including his father's emigration from Russia at the turn of the last century, he has written two other historical fiction novels. Pulp, Potatoes, and Ployes describes the plight of the Acadians following expulsion from Nova Scotia during the French and Indian War in 1755 and their survival in Northern Maine until 1955, and Lincoln Logs relates the establishment of a sawmill town in Northern New Hampshire from 1892 until 1967. Deviating from historical fiction, Dr. Seletz has written five Sentinel Event novels, the Jake Stein Series -- Sentinel Event, Not Another Sentinel Event, Code Pink, A Sentinel Event (nominated for the Frankfurt e-book award), West Point's Sentinel Event, and Sentinel Event on the High Seas.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, introduces the Patriarchs, and the beginning of five generations of a fictional family. It is extremely important for people to have knowledge about their own heritage, so I dedicate Book One of the Quartet entitled Pass In Review to my children and grandchildren, so they might discover their roots.
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge a great number of people who were responsible for the final manuscript of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Without mentioning each by name, I would like to thank all the members of my family and my numerous friends who reviewed the manuscript while it was a work in progress and offered excellent constructive criticism.
I must also acknowledge all the staff at Denlinger's Publishers & Bookstore - the readers, editors, formatters, spell checkers, fact editors, and many others—none of whom I know by name.
If it had not been for the enthusiasm, encouragement, patience, and determination of Denlinger's Acquisition Editor, Marcia Buckingham, I doubt seriously if you would have the opportunity to read Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Discover what was it like for a Jewish family to live in Czarist Russia at the end of the nineteenth century. Learn how an orphan Jewish immigrant struggled through his coming of age, to enter a University and become a physician, survive combat in the Great War, to finally marry and beget two sons, one who dies prematurely, and the other becomes a failure in life.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the first of a series of books that cover the history of the twentieth century. Nine-year-old Abraham Stentanovich witnesses the murder of his brothers -- Isaac and Jacob -- by drunken Cossacks during a pogrom in the Ukraine in 1896. He is sent to live with cousins in Germany the following year. Two years later, he immigrates to the United States at the age of 12.
Abraham Stentanovich becomes Abe Stein on Ellis Island. He lives with cousins on the lower east side of New York City for eight years, during which time he sells newspapers and delivers meat to support himself while learning English in public school with fellow immigrants. When a senior in high school, Abe experiences his coming of age.
Using natural talent to gain an Art scholarship to the University of Illinois in Chicago, Abe switches to Pre-Med and earns his Medical Degree. He completes a two-year internship at a Chicago hospital in time to be sent to France in 1917. Observing the carnage on the battlefields of the Great War, Abe returns to the United States determined to specialize in surgery.
During the first two years of Prohibition and the Roaring Twenties, Abe meets his future wife visiting from West Virginia. A three-year honeymoon coincides with a fellowship in Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgery in Vienna, Austria. They behold the evolution of the Nazi Party.
Two sons are named after Abe's deceased brothers --. Isaac and Jacob. They are reared during The Depression. Abe, Ike, and Jake live in Chicago during the first half of the Thirties, during which time Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected President.
Having moved to Charleston, West Virginia in 1935, Jake Stein lives tumultuously through his teen-age years, awkwardly surviving his coming of age during the Forties. Isaac is killed on D-Day on Utah Beach in Normandy in 1944. Jacob, because of his age, does not serve in World War Two. He graduates from high school in 1947, prepared to attend West Virginia University.
His climb up the ladder of higher education is described in the second book of the series, Jacob's Ladder. Graduating from the Virginia Military Institute, Jake Stein experiences the Korean Conflict. While in the Army Reserve during the Fabulous Fifties, he climbs the rungs of surgical residency and preceptorship to become a General and Peripheral Vascular Surgeon in 1963, just in time for Vietnam.
When planning to write such a novel as Pass in Review, I knew that on December 31, 1999, the world would witness the end of a year, a decade, a century—a millennium. It seemed appropriate to write an historical fiction novel that spanned the twentieth century; one that traced the progress and evolution of technology—from the telegraph to cyberspace; from the horse and buggy to outer space.
A novel of that length would not be acceptable to modern publishing standards, so it seemed fitting for it to become a quartet—four books—each to be published sequentially around the end of the century. The title of the novel, Pass in Review, reflects the command issued at military ceremonies—a command repeated frequently throughout all four books—for troops to march past a reviewing officer. It is also meant to indicate a review of the lives of five generations of a fictional family experiencing monumental changes throughout the century. Finally, it pertains to an historical review—social, scientific, technological, and geopolitical—of the entire 20th century.
Book One, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, covers a period from the end of the nineteenth century until the late Forties. Book Two, Jacob's Ladder, begins where Book One finishes, and continues into the Sixties. Jacob's Travels, Book Three, transports the reader into the Nineties, and Book Four, Jacob's Novel ends at the beginning of a new millennium—Y2K.
As a surgeon and military officer for 45 years, and the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant of the late 19th century, a parallel of my own life became the basis for the fictional family. The books include a Jewish ethnic background; a strong Military presence; Medical training, including evolution of modern medical technology; Prohibition and the Great Depression; the cultural changes and technological progress that took place throughout each of the ten decades, and participation in the wars and military conflicts of the era. These included the Spanish-American War, World Wars One and Two, the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, the cold war in Europe, and finally, the Persian Gulf War.
I am delighted you have chosen to read Pass in Review—all four books. I know you will enjoy traveling through time, from a tiny shetel in nineteenth-century Russia—through the capital cities of Europe, parts of the United States, the Middle East, Southwest Asia, and Africa—to an idyllic setting in the heart of the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
It is my realistic belief that some future author will use Pass in Review as a basis for writing—at the end of the twenty-first century—its sequel, Pass in Review, Again.
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