La muerte de Matusalén

by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Premio Nobel de Literatura Escribiendo sus cuentos y sus parábolas, cargados de reminiscencias hasídicas y de terrenalidad, Bashevis Singer crea un lenguaje único, un estilo esencial y visionario que, negando cualquier forma literaria corriente, representa en toda su intensidad la ruptura del sistema de valores del judaísmo -y de cualquier otra cultura- en una delirante multiplicidad de detalles salvajemente autónomos. Los cuentos del Nobel polaco extraen de la historia reciente y antigua del ghetto, de la provincia judía polaca y, más tarde, de su experiencia de la moderna diáspora en Estados Unidos e Israel, personajes y motivos a veces pintorescos, sensuales, patéticos, intensamente religiosos, fabulosamente cándidos, que nos evocan impasiblemente la mezcolanza del bien y del mal, de la ternura y de la bestialidad de qué está hecha la vida.La experiencia de su infancia en un ambiente dichoso, doméstico y a la vez sacro -tal como nos recuerda en su autobiografía En el patio de mi padre-, así como los años de estudio en el seminario rabínico de Varsovia, son los materiales preciosos de dónde este Maestro de Maestros extrae el material literario que conforma la obra de este escritor único.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Jewish, Poland, Literature, Classics, Novels

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Polish American author of Jewish descent, noted for his short stories. He was one of the leading figures in the Yiddish literary movement, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978.
His memoir, "A Day Of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw", won the U.S. National Book Award in Children's Literature in 1970, while his collection "A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories" won the U.S. National Book Award in Fiction in 1974.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Έχω την εντύπωση πως είναι δυνατότερος στα διηγήματα απ ότι στα μυθιστορήματα.
Αξιοπροσεχτη συλλογή διηγηματων που ίσως μπορεί να φανεί αρκετά περίεργη σε κάποιον με άλλη κουλτούρα, καθώς τα διηγήματα περιέχουν ιστορίες από την εβραϊκή κοινότητα και παράδοση, αλλά ίσως κι αυτό να αποτελεί το κατεξοχήν ενδιαφέρον του έργου του. Διάβασα μάλιστα πως όλο το έργο του είναι γραμμένο σε γιντις!!
Το οπισθοφυλλο γράφει πως προσπαθεί να εξερευνήσει κάθε πτυχή της ανθρώπινης φύσης, κάτι που δεν εντόπισα στα διηγήματα, τουλάχιστον στο βαθμό που περίμενα, ενώ χαρακτηριστικό είναι πως στα 19 από τα 20 διηγήματα πρωταγωνιστές είναι άνδρες και σε ένα μόνο γυναίκα, που φαίνεται πως υποτάσσεται σε ανδρικές επιταγές. Σε αυτό με έχασε, καθώς φαίνεται στο έργο του μια υποτίμηση της γυναίκας, κάτι που είχα αισθανθεί και στον Σκλάβο.
Παρόλα αυτά τα διηγήματα διαβάζονται ευχάριστα.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man (Singer?) goes to a public place - a park, a cafe, a cruise ship- starts up a conversation with a person in this place, and a fantastical story is born. This "device" is about 70% of the setup for each story in the collection. And it doesn't get boring. Are these stories true? They often feature a Yiddish writer in the first person, and some other person from a similar background. Sometimes they take place in Poland, or Argentina, or in New York. Sometimes they are about mythological creatures like demons or golems, or about a man leading a international double life, a homeless man with an incredible history, or a wife who has a lurid affair with her young nephew, some with mystical/kabbalistic overtones, and some as clear as day. They often end with a pithy "bring it home" quote.

This framing device draws the reader right in, making each story infinitely readable, like a juicy morsel of someone's private life and exploits.

This was my first full collection by Singer and I saw one critic described this collection as "undernourished", so I am curious to see what one of the other collections looks like - more "fat on their bones", perhaps? Since I enjoyed this one, I am curious to see how it could possibly get better. A 5-star for the ease of reading, while not entirely perfect (there are several "shockers" that one might not expect from the son of a rabbi), I really liked these short stories and will definitely be reading more Singer.

[Old Man JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of short stories. Isaac Bashevis Singer writes almost exclusively very Jewish oriented stories but they are very entertaining for anyone to read including non-Jews such as myself.
Probably the best of the stories in the book was one titled "disguised" about a young woman who was abandoned shortly after her wedding by her new husband with no explanation, he simply disappeared. She then went searching for him and after several years found that he was gay and living with another man. Several of the stories in the book were told by a narrator who appeared to be Singer himself listening to someone telling the story of their lives and each of these were excellent. Another story that was notable was the title story "The Death of Methuselah" about Methuselah who was approaching the end of his life at the age of nine hundred sixty nine. The story basically compared Satan to Yahweh and seemed to pose the question as to which was the more evil.

[latner3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mazel Tov.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eine Geschichte besser als die nächste. Aber besonders großartig: Die fehlende Zeile, wo ein Redakteur wissen will, warum die fehlende Zeile eines Kant-Aufsatzes bei den Meldungen einer anderen Zeitung gelandet ist.

[Vivian Matsui · Rating 3 out of 5]

Não costumo gostar muito de livros de contos, pois normalmente acho que só um ou dois contos são bons, e que o resto é exercício para preenhcer um livro. Entretanto, este aqui do Singer contém uma metade de contos bons, especialmente o do Matusalém, que distoa dos outros.

[latner3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mazel Tov.

[Francisco Barrios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vocero cabal de la literatura en yiddish y Nobel de Literatura 1978, Isaac Bashevis Singer es uno de esos autores desconcertantes, profundamente originales y dificilísimos de catalogar.

En esta colección de relatos, el autor muestra dos de sus múltiples facetas de narrador. Por un lado, está el que retoma los mitos talmúdicos y los hilvana con el mundo cotidiano, con las preocupaciones diarias y las perversiones de los hombres; por el otro, está el del oidor de historias de la comunidad judía alrededor del mundo, que mezcla con perspicacia e ironía la ancestral sabiduría hebrea con la descripción descarnada de lo humano.

En suma este libro es invaluable e Isaac Bashevis Singer es un autor al que deberíamos recuperar en nuestros días por varios motivos. Baste decir que a través de la idiosincrasia del pueblo judío ha sabido presentar dilemas humanos de carácter universal. Imperdible.

[Mike Fitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Won the Nobel prize for literature. Good book of short stories based on a time over a thousand years ago.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

But love has strange power. ~ Isaac Bashevis Singer

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good collection of short stories.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Isaac Bashevis Singers’ short story disguised via the New York Fiction Podcast. I enjoyed reading this portrayal of traditional Jewish life and its discussion of the difficulties that someone may face when struggling to remain true to their faith and their own gender identity and sexual orientation. This story is also an excellent examination of women’s roles in Jewish marriage traditions and how they reconcile those ideals with their identity’s and religious faith. I appreciated reading about the expectations for both genders in Jewish marriage traditions as this is not a topic I have read much about before. I feel reading this short story gave me a better understanding of Jewish culture and social norms. I was intrigued that this story was just as much a story about Jewish faith as it was about a woman finding her place within that faith and how to make the best of an awkward situation while still remaining true to her religious and cultural identity. I hope to read more works by this author eventually. I appreciated that the chosen gender identities of both characters were respectfully addressed and portrayed as equally valid and appropriate in this story. I loved that this story had a happy ending as well. I’ve been unintentionally reading many more somber and depressing stories lately and I needed to read something more uplifting.

[Taty Siqueira · Rating 4 out of 5]

“O que as pessoas são, nem elas próprias sabem. O fato é que todos vivemos uma busca incessante”. Esse é um livro de contos do escritor Isaac Bashevis Singer, ele escreve originalmente em ídiche e traz como cenário o universo do judaísmo e o cotidiano de comunidades de imigrantes judeus.

O escritor parece se encontrar com você para tomar um café e vai narrando histórias que te fazem pensar. Eu sou uma grande admiradora da cultura judaica e ler este livro me fez ver que todos temos em comum paixões e grandes questões filosóficas, e isso que faz o livro tão rico.

Algumas expressões são bem específicas do idioma hebraico e ídiche (quase uma fusão de hebraico, aramaico e germânico) com explicações no Glossário, mas me senti bem à vontade com elas por já estudar um pouco do judaísmo, mas não espere um livro politicamente correto. São contos que foram escritos para se deliciar nas mazelas humanas.

[Pat Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read a voice from a very different place, time, and culture. That's the best I can say.

These short stories seem to all have the theme that as a man, tou cannot trust women to be faithful. I tried to give the author the benefit of the doubt, thinking that he was trying to show how hypocritical men are to expect fidelity but not give fidelity, but the title story ends with this tidbit,

"It became clear to him that all punishment was in vain, since flesh and corruption were the same from the very beginning and always will remain the scum of creation, the very opposite of God's wisdom, mercy, and splendor."

Historical anachronisms that will hopefully fully fade away.

[Christopher Good · Rating 3 out of 5]

Six out of ten.

These were dark stories - darker than I had anticipated. Singer's world is almost universally incurvatus in se: lustful, violent, unfaithful. Any experience with the supernatural is bound to end in death.

I found this collection fascinating as a reflection of late 20th-century Jewish thought. I also felt a little nostalgia over all the Polish references.

I don't recommend this collection to immature readers; its themes are consistently depraved and despairing. But I'm not sorry that I read it.

[Ozma · Rating 3 out of 5]

IBS knows 3 Jewish demons and mixes and matches them until they best suit as props in his storyline. Honestly, it’s offensive to demons. No, the Ketev Mriri is not the king of the demons. I don’t think there even is a demon called “Briri,” it’s just part of the incantation to scare off Shabriri. Gehennom is not “hell”!
(Yes, of course I disliked this book for other, sexism-related reasons.)

[Zoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Reviewing specifically for the story "Disguised" from the New Yorker, in case my addition doesn't go through on goodreads.

Very nearly an affirming, trans, Jewish love story, significantly weakened by the anti-trans/anti-gay perspective of the narrator/author and his era. I want someone to adapt this into a new story, movie, or TV series and make it more trans and more heartwarming.

[Erwin Maack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sempre que leio suas obras, vem-me a vontade de entrar em contato com o senhor, mas acabo desistindo.

[Maggie Eisenberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skip the first story. The rest are beautiful, although sometimes disturbing, explorations of people and their relationships.

[Hotrats · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Disturbing stories that make you ponder.

[Lucia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isaac Bashevis Singer breathes humanity into biblical characters and events. He also makes everyday human lives seem almost biblical.

[Chet Taranowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief readable stories.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent short stories.

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The twenty stories in this collection fall into three main groups: stories about first generation Polish Jews who emigrated to the US in the first half of the twentieth century (e.g. The Trap), stories set in Yiddish-speaking Jewish communities in Poland steeped in nostalgia and folklore (such as Logarithms, Gifts), and surreal stories with a tad of the supernatural loosely based on the Talmud, the Old Testament or Jewish folktales (The Jew from Babylon, Sabbath in Gehenna, The Death of Methuselah).

Most of Isaac Beshevis Singer's (1903-1991) stories in this collection have to do with disappointment in love, jealousy or unfaithfulness. The stories set in the United States remind me of the Armenian-US short story writer William Saroyan (1908-1981), while the ones set in Poland remind me of Singer's Indian contemporary R. K. Narayan(1906-2001)'s ( delightful stories set in his fictional Malgudi. Singer's more surreal/supernatural/magical realist stories recall oil paintings by Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516) such as the tripthch including The Garden of Eartly Delights or The Temptations of Saint Anthony and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's brilliant short story masterpiece Hell screen.

The stories are very well written and have an attractive and deceptive simplicity about them.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the rare book where I feel I should explain myself in giving it a good "rating." As I was reading, I kept thinking how recent these short stories were-- Singer's construction is so assured and modern. They are so compact, conversational, absolutely certain of when to begin and end, his framing devices of conversations, storytellers, memories so postmodern, that it was a surprise to find this collection was published in 1971.

I remembered then reading his collection 'Gimpel the Fool' in high school, how delightful those stories were-- they nostalgized the past. These stories look back as well, but read into it a bleak selfishness in people. In the title story, the bibllical figure Methuselah is utterly corrupted, but in most of the stories, it's sex, sex, sex. And here's my reservation: in story after story-- each one delightful in itself-- the women come out as cheaters, somewhere between plot devices and connivers. Except in the brilliant 'Disguised,' which alone is enough to call Singer a great writer again and make one wonder why he seems lost to us at the moment.

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really great collection of stories by Isaace Bashevis Singer. I found some of the tales disturbing, but I think that is partly what Mr. Singer was hoping to invoke in his readers, especially Jewish ones like me. I like the way he weaves in Jewish tradition, ritual, the way we used to speak in our older generations, and even a bit of mysticism from the kabalah. In the Introduction, he says this was a book that he didn't necessarily intend to write, but that it almost wrote itself. As compelling as it was, because he is such a great story-teller, I couldn't help wonder if he would rather have not written it. These stories really brings out some of the worst aspects of human character when it comes to relationships: infidelity, betrayal of trust, wives and husbands walking out on each other and/or deceiving each other, characters lacking forgiveness or charity, etc. I cannot say I liked this book, because some of these tales were just uncomfortable and the characters were despicable. It did make me think and the story-telling was excellent.

[ester (oder esi)]

bardzo intrygująca książeczka, wypełniona historiami dość mrocznymi, przedstawiającymi realia żydowskiego życia, w różnych miejscach i epokach. bohaterowie wydają się naprawdę ludzcy, ze swoimi problemami, a pomimo, niekiedy, fantastycznych okoliczności — bowiem nie zabrakło elementów magicznych.

trudno wybrać mi ulubione opowiadanie ze zbioru, wszystkie są wyjątkowe, oryginalne w wykonaniu.

[Злата · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was excellent :)))

[Mina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une découverte pour moi. J'ai adoré ces contes sans morale, fantaisistes et baignés d'humour et d'amour. J'ai moins aimé les généralités sexistes d'un autre temps.

[Roma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found the stories disappointing, possibly (partly) because of the translation.