For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories

by Nathan Englander
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories
book data
481 ratings, 3.90 average rating, 76 reviews (more data...)
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published
March 21st 2000 (first published 1999) by Vintage

binding
Paperback, 224 pages

isbn
0375704434    (isbn13: 9780375704437)

description
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is an astonishment. Whether Nathan Englander is creating the last days of 27 condemned Soviet writers or the first ...more




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Stefani
08/05/07
Stefani rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in August, 2007
Wow! These (long) short stories) are rich, heavy, sometimes too sweet, but never inconsequential. I found it hard to get into the old-fashioned style, which made me slow down and actually work for the read. All of the stories here are set in Jewish culture and have the oddest flavor, somewhere between ultra-dense palpable realism and a-tad-too-cute mysticism. It never feels quite real, but ina good way.

One other thing liked: There's nothing of the author in here. You wouldn't know w...more
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Guy
05/07/07
Guy rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Nothing less than stunning, each and every one of them. Englander - finally - has his first novel coming out. Plus he's a total hottie, with or without the hair. I'm not proud of this, but here's how I got introduced to N.E.: I was walking past the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC and there was his headshot (in the long-hair days) on the marquee: he was giving a reading with Ann Beattie. Actually, it was Beattie's name that caught my eye, she being a favorite and all. But once I saw Englan...more
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Ann Doherty
07/07/07
Ann Doherty rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2007
Some of the stories are very funny, especially the one about the middle-aged New York businessman who discovers his Jewish soul in a taxi cab. And the one about the wigmaker. Ludicrous set-ups, yet very poignant and (I found) easy to relate to and universal. The first two, about Russians being deported to concentration camps, are gut wrenching. The last one about living in Israel and surviving a bomb attack was the only one I didn't like, the style and sentiments seemed a bit contrived, even tho...more
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Maddy
06/23/07
Maddy rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in February, 2005
This is an incredible collection of short stories about Jews. The first one didn't just make me cry - I sobbed. All of the stories were good, several were splendid and heart-wrenching. Each one felt like a tiny novel rather than a short story.

Each story somehow related to my own history (I am the child of a father who was a concentration camp inmate and a mother who was a first generation new yorker brought up on the lower east side of Manhattan whose first language was yiddish). ...more
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Agreenhouse
02/17/09
Agreenhouse rated it: 4 of 5 stars

As a child, I loved reading folktales about the foolish residents of Chelm. I remember one story about a resident who goes out to explore the great world, circles around the town and enters back into it, thinking he has entered a new village. He is amazed at the similarity between this new town and Chelm. Since nobody else has ever left Chelm, when he "returns" the other residents are fascinated by his tales of travel.

In the short story, The Tumblers, Englander takes th...more
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adam
09/12/07
adam rated it: 4 of 5 stars

OK I'll say it: you've GOT to read this. But let me qualify that by mentioning that you might not get it if you're not (sigh) Jewish. I think it was Will Smith who said, "Take it from me, gentiles just don't understand." In spite of the Semitic tag, Nathan Englander is as good a young writer as any I can think of. I hope his debut novel which just came out is as good as this. Tremendous short fiction.
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Brett
04/07/08
Brett rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2008
englander reads like a much older person from a much older time. the picture on the back of the book didn't correspond, for me, with the words inside it. which is, i think, what made how much i enjoyed this collection such a pleasant surprise. favorite stories: the tumblers, the wig, the gilgul of park avenue, the last one way, in this way we are wise.
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Dropkin
03/23/09
Dropkin rated it: 2 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2009
This is Englander's first book, a collection of nine short stories with Jewish themes. Several revolve around the interaction between religious observance and modern times, modern challenges.

Generally, I am not a fan of short stories. I enjoy the plot and character development that longer fiction entails. Often after having finished a short story I think, okay, that was an interesting idea, but am otherwise left wanting. This collection of short stories is no different.

So...more
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Pablo
03/22/09
Pablo rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2009
Well crafted stories by a writer with obvious talent and a strong sense of history.

I'm always considering the adaptability (to stage or screen) of all the fiction I read (an annoying habit, I know) and there are stories here that are almost stage-ready. Two in particular struck is as waiting to be adapted - The Gilgul of Park Avenue, and the title story.

The reviews of Amazon are mixed though generally favorable (65 giving it 4 or 5 stars and only 12 giving it 1 or 2)...more
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Taka
07/29/08
Taka rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in August, 2008
Solid collection--

Nathan Englander's stories remind me of Schulz, Gogol, and Chabon with his unique, somewhat surreal and simple style concerned with Jewish customs and tradition.

I wasn't a fan of some of the stories especially the last one that reads like an autobiography, but for the most part, the collection lives up to high standards. My personal favorites in ascending order are "The Twenty-seventh Man" - a story about an unknown writer getting round up wit...more
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Catherine
07/23/08
Catherine rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2008
I'd never heard of him before, which is strange because this book won a ton of awards and Englander was the year's wunderkind when it was published.

In any case, it's a wonderful collection of stories. The craft, the maturity of the writing (he was 28 when the book was published) are quite astonishing. If I hadn't known better, I'd have thought the author much older, in part because the stories' subjects seemed like topics that would occur to someone older, more experienced and knowl...more
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Rebecca
03/15/09
Rebecca rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2009
I thought this book was just wonderful! It was funny and smart and presented compelling twists as a way of revealing more about the characters rather than a way of showing off for the reader. It dealt with faith and Jewishness in the 21st century in a manner that is humanizing and complex and puts my own work into a context that makes me realize I have been, at times, over-simplifying and flattening. Reading this also made me want to read his other book as well as Isaac Bashevis Singer from who...more
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Bibliophile
01/09/09
Bibliophile rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2009
Read in January, 2009
I really loved a few of the stories in Nathan Englander's For the Relief of Unbearable Urges ("Reb Kringle"; "The Wig" and "The Acrobats" were all wonderfully well done!) but others felt a little flat to me, as though they were striving too hard (the title story, for example, and "The Gilgul of Park Avenue" and the final story which is, perhaps, more personal memoir than short story?)

In any case, I read this preparatory to reading The Ministr...more
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David
02/11/09
David rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2009
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of stories. Nathan Englander provides a rare glimpse into a contemporary world of Orthodox Jews. He treats his characters tenderly and endearingly while describing a world that he clearly loves and struggles with. Isaac Bashevis Singer comes to mind.
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Lorenzo
07/12/07
Lorenzo rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: american
A very good collection of short stories by this Jewish-American novelist. I have to check on the web if Englander has written other things.

I have to confess that I like so much many Jewish-American novelists as Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Isaac Singer and Mordecai Richler (though he's Canadian).

Englander joins and doesn't join this club at the same time. I mean that he's surely influenced by giants, but he developes his own style without looking derivative. Each one of the ...more
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Sarah
04/08/09
Sarah rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2009
I thought this was a really good collection. Englander makes you care about things that you might not otherwise. The last story wasn't as powerful to me as it probably should have been, which is probably a sad statement. But I thought some of the other stories were fabulous.
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Judkatty
04/20/09
Judkatty rated it: 5 of 5 stars

that a man, especially one so young, could capture a woman's inner thoughts which are sometimes reflected in this collection of short stories - blows my mind
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Bob
05/15/09
Bob rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0375404929)

Read in March, 1999
Hard to believe it's been a decade since I read this. I'm reminded what a pleasure these stories were, and how remarkable they seemed.
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Hannah
04/24/09
Hannah rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: fiction, jewish
Less dark and angry than Shalom Auslander, but serves the same purpose for me: beautiful stories that address never-discussed dysfunction in Orthodox Jewish communities.
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Emil
01/26/09
Emil rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: jews
the chelm story alone makes this a classic and brilliant collection, and the rest are great, too.
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For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories (Hardcover)
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For the Relief of Unbearable Urges (Paperback)
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