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The Tunnel

Summarizing David Samuels in Tablet · Published Wednesday, October 16, 2024
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JL;DR SUMMARY In "The Tunnel," David Samuels delves into the psyche of a person living in a surreal underground world beneath New York City, blending aspects of urban isolation with deep reflections on Jewish identity and cultural memory. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Holocaust  Jewish Identity  New York City  Isolation  Gaza Tunnels  Urban Life  Historical Trauma  Cultural Memory  Subway 

Places mentioned

Brooklyn, New York, United States
"Its like living in the headlights of a subway train, shaking and rumbling its way through Brooklyn, then heading across the river to Manhattan and up to Yankee Stadium, with passengers entering and exiting onto platforms, then climbing the steps, and going about their business aboveground."
Queens, New York, United States
"So I brought the boards down here, and lovingly sanded them down, staining and nailing them together to contain such varied treasures as a complete set of WPA guidebooks, the autobiography of Willie the Lion Smith, Really the Blues by Mezz Mezzrow, the collected works of Saul Bellow, the Library of America set of Philip Roth, and a set of the Encyclopedia Judaica whose nameplate indicates that it formerly resided on the shelves of the Butler Library at Columbia University."
Manhattan, New York, United States
"In any case, your average upwardly mobile couple in Park Slope or the Upper West Side, with a couple of advanced degrees each, can only dream of finding space like this in aboveground Brooklyn, with separate rooms for eating, sleeping, working, and watching television, walk-in supply closets containing mountains of old boxes, and enough extra space for a home gym."
Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York, United States
"Then I lay them out on the table and clip stories of interest, to be included in my personal news feed, like Tunnels discovered beneath Crown Heights synagogue or Hezbollah leader killed in bunker."
Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, United States
"After all, what else had our parents imagined when they sent us to the University of Pennsylvania, where we met as sophomores? She was the exotic daughter of a Pakistani family that worked in the carpet business. I was the son of a diabetes doctor with a practice in Sheepshead Bay."
Riverdale, Bronx, New York, United States
"When I told Ernie that he was wrong, he shook his bald head and wagged his trigger finger at me across Grandma Roses long mahogany dining table, which she transported from their apartment in the Bronx first to Riverdale, and then to a house with a broad front lawn and an oak tree in Saddle Brook, New Jersey."
Saddle Brook, New Jersey, New York, United States
"When I told Ernie that he was wrong, he shook his bald head and wagged his trigger finger at me across Grandma Roses long mahogany dining table, which she transported from their apartment in the Bronx first to Riverdale, and then to a house with a broad front lawn and an oak tree in Saddle Brook, New Jersey."
University of Pennsylvania, New York, United States
"My wife, Lakshmi, worked as a curator at the Met and took the crosstown bus to work."
East End Avenue, Manhattan, New York, United States
"Why not live aboveground? Until recently I did, though I cant say that I found the experience terribly satisfying. I had a lovely apartment in a white brick building on East End Avenue within walking distance of the office where I worked as a tax attorney for multinational conglomerates that distribute digital entertainment across the borders of space and time."
Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York, United States
"Its like living in the headlights of a subway train, shaking and rumbling its way through Brooklyn, then heading across the river to Manhattan and up to Yankee Stadium, with passengers entering and exiting onto platforms, then climbing the steps, and going about their business aboveground."
Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York, United States
"Still they were proud to have lived on the Grand Concourse, where Ernie carried Rose over the threshold, dressed in his GI uniform."
Catskills, New York, United States
"I made the bookshelves out of long boards of black oak I found in a junk shop in the Catskills, where I first fled."
Columbia University, New York, United States
"So I brought the boards down here, and lovingly sanded them down, staining and nailing them together to contain such varied treasures as a complete set of WPA guidebooks, the autobiography of Willie the Lion Smith, Really the Blues by Mezz Mezzrow, the collected works of Saul Bellow, the Library of America set of Philip Roth, and a set of the Encyclopedia Judaica whose nameplate indicates that it formerly resided on the shelves of the Butler Library at Columbia University."
Shelter Island, New York, United States
"Our wedding was a strictly secular affair, held on an off-season weekend in early October on the lawn of a large rented house on Shelter Island, where we united in pushing our parents to the margins while gesturing at the cross-cultural nature of our marriage with the witty gesture of serving vegetable samosa appetizers alongside matzo ball soup."
Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York, United States
"Having been to college, I laughed at Ernie while secretly enjoying the superiority of my own knowledge. Down here, in my tunnel, where I am free to conduct my research safe from outside interference, I have realized that he was right. Genetic evidence shows that Christopher Columbus was indeed Jewish. The aboriginal people from whom the Native American tribes are descended have much of their DNA in common with the aboriginal people of western Russia and virtually none in common with the tribes of Asia. If Russian Jews are indeed descended from the Khazars of western Russia and not indigenous to Palestine, we are at least the genetic inheritors of the Americas, just like Ernie said. History has spoken. Lets call it the 1492"

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Retrieved 2025-07-30 05:32:15 UTC
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