{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0253223288?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"0253223288","authors":["Jarrod Tanny"],"book_id":"9780253223289","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/city-of-rogues-and-schnorrers-0253223288","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780253223289.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","description":"Old Odessa, on the Black Sea, gained notoriety as a legendary city of Jewish gangsters and swindlers, a frontier boomtown mythologized for the adventurers, criminals, and merrymakers who flocked there to seek easy wealth and lead lives of debauchery and excess. Odessa is also famed for the brand of Jewish humor brought there in the 19th century from the shtetls of Eastern Europe and that flourished throughout Soviet times. From a broad historical perspective, Jarrod Tanny examines the hybrid Judeo-Russian culture that emerged in Odessa in the 19th century and persisted through the Soviet era and beyond. The book shows how the art of eminent Soviet-era figures such as Isaac Babel, Il'ia Ilf, Evgenii Petrov, and Leonid Utesov grew out of the Odessa Russian-Jewish culture into which they were born and which shaped their lives.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780253223289","publication_date":"20111114","publisher":"Indiana University Press","slug":"city-of-rogues-and-schnorrers","subtitle":"Russia's Jews and the Myth of Old Odessa","title":"City of Rogues and Schnorrers"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"East European Literary Criticism","score":0.7576,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004210","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Jewish Literary Criticism","score":0.7475,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004240","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Russian Lit Crit","score":0.7474,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"East European Literary Criticism","score":0.7576,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004210","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Jewish Literary Criticism","score":0.7475,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004240","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Russian Lit Crit","score":0.7474,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS022000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Jewish History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS032000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Russian History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004210","confidence_band":"high","label":"Jewish Literary Criticism","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"East European Literary Criticism","score":0.7576,"slug":"east-european-literary-criticism"},{"label":"Jewish Literary Criticism","score":0.7475,"slug":"jewish-literary-criticism"},{"label":"Russian Lit Crit","score":0.7474,"slug":"russian-lit-crit"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy East European Literary Criticism","Good for readers interested in studies","Good for fans of History"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Mikhail Krutikov"],"book_id":"9780253041876","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780253041876.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":19.2242,"title":"Der Nister's Soviet Years","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780253041876"},{"authors":["Maxim D. Shrayer"],"book_id":"9781618117922","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781618117922.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":16.9431,"title":"Voices of Jewish-russian Literature","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781618117922"},{"authors":["David Suchoff"],"book_id":"9780812243710","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780812243710.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":16.0226,"title":"Kafka's Jewish Languages","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780812243710"},{"authors":["Tamara Hundorova","Sergiy Yakovenko"],"book_id":"9781644692387","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781644692387.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":15.922,"title":"The Post-chornobyl Library","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781644692387"},{"authors":["Chingiz Aitmatov","John French"],"book_id":"9780253204820","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780253204820.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":15.8868,"title":"The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780253204820"},{"authors":["Daniel Boyarin"],"book_id":"9780253209092","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780253209092.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":15.1217,"title":"Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780253209092"},{"authors":["Isaiah Berlin","Henry Hardy","Aileen Kelly"],"book_id":"9780141442204","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780141442204.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":13.6558,"title":"Russian Thinkers","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780141442204"},{"authors":["Meir Sternberg"],"book_id":"9780253204530","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780253204530.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":11.7813,"title":"The Poetics of Biblical Narrative","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780253204530"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:history"],"label":"History","score":0.9238,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:history literature and literary studies"],"label":"Literature","score":0.1235,"slug":"literature"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:history literature and literary studies"],"label":"Literary","score":0.0955,"slug":"literary"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:eurasian studies"],"label":"Studies","score":0.079,"slug":"studies"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:jewish studies"],"label":"Jewish","score":0.0484,"slug":"jewish"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: History, Literature, Literary.","Reading lane: East European Literary Criticism and Jewish Literary Criticism.","Publisher: Indiana University Press."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":19,"goodreads_reviews_count":3,"quality_score":0.8376}}