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Collected Stories II: A Friend of Kafka to Passions
To mark the centennial of the birth of Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Library of America presents Collected Stories, a major celebration of Singer's achievement. Beginning with Gimpel the Fool, whose title story brought Singer to sudden prominence in America when translated by Saul Bellow in 1953, and concluding with The Death of Methuselah, the collection published three years before his death in 1991, this three-volume edition brings together for the first time all the story collections Singer published in English in the versions he called his "second originals"--translations he supervised and collaborated on, revising as he worked. In addition, Collected Stories includes previously uncollected or unpublished stories from his manuscripts in the Ransom Center collections, providing a rare glimpse into the workshop of a literary genius. Here are nearly 200 stories--the full range of Singer's vision--encompassing Old World shtetl and New World exile. Born in Poland in 1904 into a family of rabbis, Singer was raised in a traditional culture that perished at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War, and his haunting stories testify to the richness of that vanished world. Singer's Old World tales reveal a wild, mischievous, often disturbing supernaturalism evocative of local storytelling traditions. After his immigration to America, Singer's stories increasingly explore the daily lived reality and imaginative boundaries of Jewish culture as it was transplanted to the United States, revealing him to be the emblematic immigrant American writer, a writer whose vision and insights enlarged our idea of what it is to be an American.
800 pages, Hardcover
First published July 8, 2004
7 people are currently reading
109 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Bashevis Singer
551 books1,092 followersIsaac 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 22, 2017
The second of three volumes of the short stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer contains three collections originally published between 1970-1975. Whereas the first volume focused primarily on late 19th/early 20th century Jewish/Yiddish stories from Poland and Galicia—ranging from vignettes about individuals to more mystical fantasy about demons, imps, dybbuks and angels—this volume includes more semi-autobiographical stories about life among the Yiddish friends and acquaintances of Singer. But there still are some stories set in pre-WWII Poland.
Of the 65 short stories, I found all but two to be very interesting. For example, “Something Is There” is a touching story about a rabbi who loses his faith and rashly leaves his village for Warsaw. This somewhat Dickensian story follows him on the first visit of his life to a big city which ultimately leads to an acceptance of his fate.
The other stories range from encounters that Singer had with relatives, acquaintances and friends in places like New York, Argentina, Poland and Israel. Each has an insight to faith, mysticism, Jewish/Yiddish culture or human relationships. There are stories about an elderly widower who finds unexpected love in his Miami condo, a wealthy New Yorker who engages in a double life with a simple, poor woman, or Singer's experiences as both an aspiring and accomplished writer (the story of the loss of his briefcase while on a lecture tour is very funny). His stories about early 20th Century Poland and Galicia recall stories told by his family members. The stories about gravediggers, a demon who possesses the household of three sisters and merchant who is drawn to see the ocean before he dies are just a few of memorable characters that Singer so skillfully brings to life.
Singer's writing is hypnotic. There is something for everyone ranging from the religiously pious to the most intellectual of atheists. They are stories filled with profound humanity. One of the best books I have ever read.
Of the 65 short stories, I found all but two to be very interesting. For example, “Something Is There” is a touching story about a rabbi who loses his faith and rashly leaves his village for Warsaw. This somewhat Dickensian story follows him on the first visit of his life to a big city which ultimately leads to an acceptance of his fate.
The other stories range from encounters that Singer had with relatives, acquaintances and friends in places like New York, Argentina, Poland and Israel. Each has an insight to faith, mysticism, Jewish/Yiddish culture or human relationships. There are stories about an elderly widower who finds unexpected love in his Miami condo, a wealthy New Yorker who engages in a double life with a simple, poor woman, or Singer's experiences as both an aspiring and accomplished writer (the story of the loss of his briefcase while on a lecture tour is very funny). His stories about early 20th Century Poland and Galicia recall stories told by his family members. The stories about gravediggers, a demon who possesses the household of three sisters and merchant who is drawn to see the ocean before he dies are just a few of memorable characters that Singer so skillfully brings to life.
Singer's writing is hypnotic. There is something for everyone ranging from the religiously pious to the most intellectual of atheists. They are stories filled with profound humanity. One of the best books I have ever read.
September 23, 2024
Isaac Bashevis Singer In The Library Of America
My college-bound grandson expressed an interest in Judaica and in Yiddish writing as he prepared to go off to school. I had, in fact, been reading an old copy of this Library of America volume of Singer: "Collected Stories, A Friend of Kafka to Passions" and had it with me during a recent visit. I was surprised to learn of my grandson's interest in a culture of which he knew little. I gave him my old battered copy and acquired a new one for myself and slowly continued reading through this lengthy volume of 65 stories and 850 pages.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1903 -- 1991) grew up in Poland, the son of a rabbi and deeply steeped in Orthodox, Hasidic Judaism. He early became a writer in Yiddish and emigrated to the United States in 1935 where he lived for the rest of his life. Continuing to write in Yiddish for various periodicals, Singer's work began to be translated into English in the 1950s and his popularity and exposure to a large audience increased. Singer began to assist in the translation of his works and came to regard English as his "second original language". In 1974, Singer received the National Book Award for his short story collection "A Crown of Feathers" included in this volume, and in 1978 he became the seventh American citizen to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Singer's popularity has waned somewhat subsequent to his death.
The Library of America published three volumes of Singer's Collected Stories in 2004, to coincide with the centenary of his birth, and reissued the volumes in 2015 in a box set. Ilan Stavans, who also edited the LOA volume "Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing", edited the volumes. Singer became the first fiction writer in an original language other than English to be included in the LOA. (An earlier LOA book was devoted to Alexis de Tocqueville who wrote in French.) Singer was a prolific writer who also wrote lengthy novels and children's books, but the stories are probably the most accessible single part of his work.
"What makes a writer an American writer?", the LOA asks on its page introducing Singer. This writer of tales centered on the pre-WW II world of Polish Jews touched on a welter of themes shared by the broad American experience. In the words of the LOA, "his parables seemed, to his newfound American audience, startlingly apposite to the morally ambiguous world ushered in by World War II, even as they evoked, as in a dream, a time and a place the war had brutally obliterated".
Singer's stories are set in his native Poland, both in rural areas and in Warsaw, and, increasingly, in the United States. For me, the stories have broad philosophical themes which center upon religious faith and its difficulty in contemporary life. The stories illustrate the search for meaning and morality in life amid uncertainty and change. They explore the nature of reason and rationality, frequently illustrated by the figure of Spinoza, as juxtaposed with feeling, passion, and mystery. Singer's works are replete with spirits, amulets and supernatural figures from of old.
Another broad theme of Singer's work, criticized by some, is sexuality. The stories explore the pervasive character of sexuality both in modern secular life and in the seemingly closed world of the Orthodox Jewish community in Poland. The stories offer more than a suggestion that sexuality and the religious search are intertwined.
Singer's stories have an immediacy in their telling, and many are strongly autobiographical. They often include a Singer-like narrator who converses with another individual who shares his, or sometimes her, story. Whether set in Poland, in America, or elsewhere, the stories often take place in a cafeteria, writer's club, or apartment, or other place for conversation and reflection. Stories and issues come to life through the interaction of a small group of individuals and in their telling. The parochialism of the stories is apparent, but the universality of their concerns is as well.
The three books included in this LOA volume each include stories mostly published separately in magazines. As Singer became more widely known, the English translations followed closely upon the original Yiddish. The themes seem to me largely constant among the three volumes with Singer's concerns and preoccupations restated engagingly in many different ways. Singer had a complex relationship to Judaism. He seems to me enmeshed in it always and to come closest to it in his latter works. The two initial books in this volume "A Friend of Kafka" and "A Crown of Feathers" have a more searching, skeptical tone for me than most of the stories in "Passions".
The titles of each book are well-chosen. and I enjoyed the stories on which they are based. In "A Friend of Kafka" (1970), I also particularly liked the stories "The Cafeteria" and "Something is There". In the National Book Award winning, "A Crown of Feathers" (1974), the stories I liked included "A Day in Coney Island" and "The Cabalist of East Broadway". In the aptly named volume "Passions" (1975) which explores both religious and sexual longings, the stories "Old Love", "Sabbath in Portugal", and "The New Year Party" were among those I most enjoyed. The latter two books also include short introductions by Singer which offer insight into what he was about.
The LOA volume includes a chronology of Singer's life, notes on the texts and on the stories, and a brief glossary of Yiddish expressions found in the stories.
I was grateful for the opportunity to explore I.B. Singer again through this LOA volume. Perhaps I will have the opportunity to explore the remaining two volumes in the LOA series. My favorite story by Singer, "The Spinoza of Market Street" is included in the first volume. I was glad to see as well that Singer may be of interest to new young readers, as evidenced by my grandson.
Robin Friedman
My college-bound grandson expressed an interest in Judaica and in Yiddish writing as he prepared to go off to school. I had, in fact, been reading an old copy of this Library of America volume of Singer: "Collected Stories, A Friend of Kafka to Passions" and had it with me during a recent visit. I was surprised to learn of my grandson's interest in a culture of which he knew little. I gave him my old battered copy and acquired a new one for myself and slowly continued reading through this lengthy volume of 65 stories and 850 pages.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1903 -- 1991) grew up in Poland, the son of a rabbi and deeply steeped in Orthodox, Hasidic Judaism. He early became a writer in Yiddish and emigrated to the United States in 1935 where he lived for the rest of his life. Continuing to write in Yiddish for various periodicals, Singer's work began to be translated into English in the 1950s and his popularity and exposure to a large audience increased. Singer began to assist in the translation of his works and came to regard English as his "second original language". In 1974, Singer received the National Book Award for his short story collection "A Crown of Feathers" included in this volume, and in 1978 he became the seventh American citizen to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Singer's popularity has waned somewhat subsequent to his death.
The Library of America published three volumes of Singer's Collected Stories in 2004, to coincide with the centenary of his birth, and reissued the volumes in 2015 in a box set. Ilan Stavans, who also edited the LOA volume "Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing", edited the volumes. Singer became the first fiction writer in an original language other than English to be included in the LOA. (An earlier LOA book was devoted to Alexis de Tocqueville who wrote in French.) Singer was a prolific writer who also wrote lengthy novels and children's books, but the stories are probably the most accessible single part of his work.
"What makes a writer an American writer?", the LOA asks on its page introducing Singer. This writer of tales centered on the pre-WW II world of Polish Jews touched on a welter of themes shared by the broad American experience. In the words of the LOA, "his parables seemed, to his newfound American audience, startlingly apposite to the morally ambiguous world ushered in by World War II, even as they evoked, as in a dream, a time and a place the war had brutally obliterated".
Singer's stories are set in his native Poland, both in rural areas and in Warsaw, and, increasingly, in the United States. For me, the stories have broad philosophical themes which center upon religious faith and its difficulty in contemporary life. The stories illustrate the search for meaning and morality in life amid uncertainty and change. They explore the nature of reason and rationality, frequently illustrated by the figure of Spinoza, as juxtaposed with feeling, passion, and mystery. Singer's works are replete with spirits, amulets and supernatural figures from of old.
Another broad theme of Singer's work, criticized by some, is sexuality. The stories explore the pervasive character of sexuality both in modern secular life and in the seemingly closed world of the Orthodox Jewish community in Poland. The stories offer more than a suggestion that sexuality and the religious search are intertwined.
Singer's stories have an immediacy in their telling, and many are strongly autobiographical. They often include a Singer-like narrator who converses with another individual who shares his, or sometimes her, story. Whether set in Poland, in America, or elsewhere, the stories often take place in a cafeteria, writer's club, or apartment, or other place for conversation and reflection. Stories and issues come to life through the interaction of a small group of individuals and in their telling. The parochialism of the stories is apparent, but the universality of their concerns is as well.
The three books included in this LOA volume each include stories mostly published separately in magazines. As Singer became more widely known, the English translations followed closely upon the original Yiddish. The themes seem to me largely constant among the three volumes with Singer's concerns and preoccupations restated engagingly in many different ways. Singer had a complex relationship to Judaism. He seems to me enmeshed in it always and to come closest to it in his latter works. The two initial books in this volume "A Friend of Kafka" and "A Crown of Feathers" have a more searching, skeptical tone for me than most of the stories in "Passions".
The titles of each book are well-chosen. and I enjoyed the stories on which they are based. In "A Friend of Kafka" (1970), I also particularly liked the stories "The Cafeteria" and "Something is There". In the National Book Award winning, "A Crown of Feathers" (1974), the stories I liked included "A Day in Coney Island" and "The Cabalist of East Broadway". In the aptly named volume "Passions" (1975) which explores both religious and sexual longings, the stories "Old Love", "Sabbath in Portugal", and "The New Year Party" were among those I most enjoyed. The latter two books also include short introductions by Singer which offer insight into what he was about.
The LOA volume includes a chronology of Singer's life, notes on the texts and on the stories, and a brief glossary of Yiddish expressions found in the stories.
I was grateful for the opportunity to explore I.B. Singer again through this LOA volume. Perhaps I will have the opportunity to explore the remaining two volumes in the LOA series. My favorite story by Singer, "The Spinoza of Market Street" is included in the first volume. I was glad to see as well that Singer may be of interest to new young readers, as evidenced by my grandson.
Robin Friedman
September 25, 2023
A loaner from my friend Ann. There are SO many stories in this 800-page book that I'll have to eschew writing up all of them. A comment here or there will have to do. The book itself is not all that big for containing 800+ pages. The paper is very thin! I expect that I may have read a few of these before. We'll see...
The first tale is "A Friend of Kafka" and is a trip to "old" Europe. Many names are dropped. I assume they were all real people.
Moving along, a few stories in. This one will take a while... here's a nice line(from "Guests on a Winter Night") "It was quiet. I heard the wick sucking the kerosene." Now THAT'S quiet!
'The Key" - Seems like I may have read this one before.. IBS likes to finish at least SOME of his tales with an emotional-spiritual uplift. This one sure had it.
WOW! I just noticed the overall rating of the book - 4.61* - I think it's the highest I've encountered. However, thats the average of only 38 ratings - only four reviews so far.
"Dr. Beeber" - There are A LOT of stories in this book, which unites three different short story collections. So far they've all been short shorts.
"Stories from Behind the Stove", "The Cafeteria"
"The Mentor" - The setting is Israel and I'm not sure I "got" what it was about. The narrator seems to be an extension of the author himself.
"Pigeons" - might have been titled "Lord of the Pigeons" or "The Pigeon King". Is this magical realism? Pretty cool ending...
"The Chimney Sweep", "The Riddle", "Altele", *The Joke", "The Primper",
"Reb" is like "Sir" in Yiddish.
*Schloimele" - Seems to be referring to "Yentl" and attempts to get it onto the stage as a play. Pre-WWII. Streisand finally made it into a bloated ego-oozing movie spectacle of two-hours plus. Never saw it...
"The Colony" - IBS ranges far and wide in the settings of these stories. This one goes to Argentina to assess the fate of an agricultural colony established by one Baron de Hirsch. There's plenty to read about the Baron, a 5-star philanthropist, on-line. IBS describes his promotion of Jewish settlement into agri-business as "trying to turn Russian Jews into Argentine peasants." this story has a very sour taste to it.
"Fate" - Many of theses stories consist of the narrator(the author?) getting to know someone who winds up telling him their story. Like this one...
"Powers" - There's a story(within a story) in this one that's very similar to a story I heard in an AA meeting today. Spooky...
"Something Is There" - This and all the previous stories were originally collected in "A Friend of Kafka & Other Stories"
"A Crown of Feathers" - This was a long one and chock full of Russian weirdness: religion, pagan superstition, scuzzy Russian peasant living and all the rest. I was surprised to see Laurie Colwin listed as co-translator with I.B.S. Did she have a "thing" with him?
- Sabbatai Zevi = 17th c. Jewish mystic.
"The Captive" more Jewish voo-doo.
"The Blizzard" - And yet more tale-spinning involving the supernatural. Set in Poland, I think.
"Property" = ethnology...
"The Lantuch" = more spook-ology
"The Son from America" - Talk about cultural differences!
"The Briefcase - Take a deep breath and things might work out.
I'm about halfway though this book and still enjoying it. IBS is VERY smooth and easy to read even if what's being isn't exactly compelling(to ME at least).
"The Cabalist of East Broadway" - I think I prefer these "America" stories. Because I can "identify" better?
"The Bishop's Robe", "A Quotation from Klopstock"
- In one of these stories(I think) there's a scene of two people fighting over a bread crust(or was it in "Tom Jones" = reminiscent of "The Book Thief".
"The Magazine" - Laurie Colwin = editor - was she the young woman in Roth's "The Ghost Writer"?
"Lost", "The Prodigy", "The Third One"
"The Recluse" -Ecclesiastical scheming a la "Barchester Towers".
"A Dance and a Hop", "Her Son", "The Egotist",
- "The Egotist" = a fine account of aging, at-sea-in-the-USA losers of the political wars in revolutionary Russia.
"The Beard," "The Dance" - another tale of aging Old World Jewish/Yiddish intelligentsia , sometimes continuing on to a life transplanted in the USA. Weird... decrepit...
"On a Wagon," "Neighbors"
"Grandfather and Grandson" - a mini-epic.
"Hanka", "Old Love", "Errors"
"The Admirer" = the first out-and-out farce so far.
"Sabbath in Portugal", "The Yearning Heifer", "The Witch"' "Sam Palka and David Vishcover", "A Tutor in the Village", "The New Year Party",
Getting near the end now and have been reading the biographical notes in the back. Laurie Colvin gets a mention there.
"A Pair"... almost done now with this seemingly endless parade of wacko Yiddish people both in Europe and America(mostly - a few are set in Argentina, Israel and England(?) and perhaps other places have slipped through my memory.. I'm not sure what het point of it all is. Singer is a great writer, a sponge through all his experiences - mostly with various eccentric(to put it mildly) people. They all seem to be trapped in a Medieval culture at odds with the "modern"(hideous - think Hitler and Stalin - world.
"The Fatalist", "Two Markets", "The Gravedigger", "The Sorcerer", "Moishele", almost there now.
"Three Encounters", "The Adventure", "Passions", ("A Tutor in the Village" is listed at the top of page 795 sort of randomly in the middle of another story) - ????? Publisher error I suppose. If so it was the only one I detected.
FINITO!!!! I wonder if there is a persistence of (perceived)Jewish nuttiness to be found in the enclaves that still survive in places like NYC/Brooklyn etc. 90% of the people in these stories were just plain wacko and totally infused with "the old ways" of doing and thinking. Not ALL of the stories were about "tradition", but that seemed to be the common thread throughout. BTW, "The Magic Barrel" is my favorite IBS story, but it's not in this book!
The first tale is "A Friend of Kafka" and is a trip to "old" Europe. Many names are dropped. I assume they were all real people.
Moving along, a few stories in. This one will take a while... here's a nice line(from "Guests on a Winter Night") "It was quiet. I heard the wick sucking the kerosene." Now THAT'S quiet!
'The Key" - Seems like I may have read this one before.. IBS likes to finish at least SOME of his tales with an emotional-spiritual uplift. This one sure had it.
WOW! I just noticed the overall rating of the book - 4.61* - I think it's the highest I've encountered. However, thats the average of only 38 ratings - only four reviews so far.
"Dr. Beeber" - There are A LOT of stories in this book, which unites three different short story collections. So far they've all been short shorts.
"Stories from Behind the Stove", "The Cafeteria"
"The Mentor" - The setting is Israel and I'm not sure I "got" what it was about. The narrator seems to be an extension of the author himself.
"Pigeons" - might have been titled "Lord of the Pigeons" or "The Pigeon King". Is this magical realism? Pretty cool ending...
"The Chimney Sweep", "The Riddle", "Altele", *The Joke", "The Primper",
"Reb" is like "Sir" in Yiddish.
*Schloimele" - Seems to be referring to "Yentl" and attempts to get it onto the stage as a play. Pre-WWII. Streisand finally made it into a bloated ego-oozing movie spectacle of two-hours plus. Never saw it...
"The Colony" - IBS ranges far and wide in the settings of these stories. This one goes to Argentina to assess the fate of an agricultural colony established by one Baron de Hirsch. There's plenty to read about the Baron, a 5-star philanthropist, on-line. IBS describes his promotion of Jewish settlement into agri-business as "trying to turn Russian Jews into Argentine peasants." this story has a very sour taste to it.
"Fate" - Many of theses stories consist of the narrator(the author?) getting to know someone who winds up telling him their story. Like this one...
"Powers" - There's a story(within a story) in this one that's very similar to a story I heard in an AA meeting today. Spooky...
"Something Is There" - This and all the previous stories were originally collected in "A Friend of Kafka & Other Stories"
"A Crown of Feathers" - This was a long one and chock full of Russian weirdness: religion, pagan superstition, scuzzy Russian peasant living and all the rest. I was surprised to see Laurie Colwin listed as co-translator with I.B.S. Did she have a "thing" with him?
- Sabbatai Zevi = 17th c. Jewish mystic.
"The Captive" more Jewish voo-doo.
"The Blizzard" - And yet more tale-spinning involving the supernatural. Set in Poland, I think.
"Property" = ethnology...
"The Lantuch" = more spook-ology
"The Son from America" - Talk about cultural differences!
"The Briefcase - Take a deep breath and things might work out.
I'm about halfway though this book and still enjoying it. IBS is VERY smooth and easy to read even if what's being isn't exactly compelling(to ME at least).
"The Cabalist of East Broadway" - I think I prefer these "America" stories. Because I can "identify" better?
"The Bishop's Robe", "A Quotation from Klopstock"
- In one of these stories(I think) there's a scene of two people fighting over a bread crust(or was it in "Tom Jones" = reminiscent of "The Book Thief".
"The Magazine" - Laurie Colwin = editor - was she the young woman in Roth's "The Ghost Writer"?
"Lost", "The Prodigy", "The Third One"
"The Recluse" -Ecclesiastical scheming a la "Barchester Towers".
"A Dance and a Hop", "Her Son", "The Egotist",
- "The Egotist" = a fine account of aging, at-sea-in-the-USA losers of the political wars in revolutionary Russia.
"The Beard," "The Dance" - another tale of aging Old World Jewish/Yiddish intelligentsia , sometimes continuing on to a life transplanted in the USA. Weird... decrepit...
"On a Wagon," "Neighbors"
"Grandfather and Grandson" - a mini-epic.
"Hanka", "Old Love", "Errors"
"The Admirer" = the first out-and-out farce so far.
"Sabbath in Portugal", "The Yearning Heifer", "The Witch"' "Sam Palka and David Vishcover", "A Tutor in the Village", "The New Year Party",
Getting near the end now and have been reading the biographical notes in the back. Laurie Colvin gets a mention there.
"A Pair"... almost done now with this seemingly endless parade of wacko Yiddish people both in Europe and America(mostly - a few are set in Argentina, Israel and England(?) and perhaps other places have slipped through my memory.. I'm not sure what het point of it all is. Singer is a great writer, a sponge through all his experiences - mostly with various eccentric(to put it mildly) people. They all seem to be trapped in a Medieval culture at odds with the "modern"(hideous - think Hitler and Stalin - world.
"The Fatalist", "Two Markets", "The Gravedigger", "The Sorcerer", "Moishele", almost there now.
"Three Encounters", "The Adventure", "Passions", ("A Tutor in the Village" is listed at the top of page 795 sort of randomly in the middle of another story) - ????? Publisher error I suppose. If so it was the only one I detected.
FINITO!!!! I wonder if there is a persistence of (perceived)Jewish nuttiness to be found in the enclaves that still survive in places like NYC/Brooklyn etc. 90% of the people in these stories were just plain wacko and totally infused with "the old ways" of doing and thinking. Not ALL of the stories were about "tradition", but that seemed to be the common thread throughout. BTW, "The Magic Barrel" is my favorite IBS story, but it's not in this book!
March 16, 2022
This is the second of three volumes, I've read both volume one and two (so far). Originally written in Yiddish and translated into English, the authors extraordinary skills still shine through. It is a very long book. Sixty-five stories, over 850 pages long. Extremely rich in European Jewish history and circumstances. The richness, depth, nuances, of this writing almost compels the reader to consider this as required reading. It also makes it clear (again) why Singer received a Nobel Prize in Literature.
July 16, 2025
Some good stories, with humorous and religiously thoughtful lines.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews