By the Waters of Whitechapel

“By the Waters of Whitechapel is as much a comedy of pain as Goodbye, Columbus is a comedy of sadness; but it is a luminous, tender comedy centered on feeling and irony . . . mixing realism and fantasy in a way that recalls Chagall.” —Isabel Quigley, Financial Times Aubrey Field, thirty-five, balding, and not exactly slim, daydreams of a rich future. “I want my life to bear fruit,” he cries, but home is with his mother above a sweetshop in Whitechapel. They are among the few survivors of wh...