Commercial Leases and Family Realities in Charles Reznikoff’s Family Chronicle

Abstract

This paper argues that Charles Reznikoff’s autobiography, Family Chronicle: An Odyssey from Russia to America, presents Jewish law as an ethical alternative to U.S. law. The autobiography illustrates how Jewish law refuses to let social and economic hierarchies compromise its emphasis on truth-finding and the speedy resolution of legal troubles. Family Chronicle tragically portrays the Reznikoff family’s inability to exert equal bargaining power with its landlords, something commercial lease law assumes they can do. Reznikoff’s autobiography suggests that the United States can better realize its democratic principles by revising commercial lease law to reflect the tenant-centered approach of residential lease law.

Citation

Apps, S. and Cooper, T. (2017), "Commercial Leases and Family Realities in Charles Reznikoff’s Family Chronicle", Studies in Law, Politics, and Society (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 72), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-433720170000072001