Isaac Bashevis Singer: An Album

by Ilan Stavans

"The seventh American and sole Yiddish writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, Isaac Bashevis Singer was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States in 1935 at age 30. Although he lived in Manhattan for more than 50 years and set many of his stories there, he wrote virtually all his work in Yiddish, participated fully in translating - and often simultaneously revising - the tales and novels that were to make him famous among American readers. Drawing on East European Jewish folk memory and mystical tradition, his writing merged Old World demons and modern apartments, the faith of the European shtetl and the worldliness of postwar America." "Singer first captured the attention of mainstream American critics and readers when Saul Bellow translated "Gimpel the Fool" in 1953, and in the following years his fiction would appear in such popular magazines as Harper's, The New Yorker, and Playboy, and in a series of novels and remarkable story collections. As Singer became a well-known public figure - the living embodiment, for many American readers, of a vanished culture - his work was adapted for the screen: the story "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy" as a feature film starring Barbra Streisand and the novel Enemies, A Love Story as a film by Paul Mazursky. In his later years he also turned to children's books, such as the Newberry Award-winning Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories, illustrated by Maurice Sendak." With more than 60 black-and-white and 20 full-color illustrations, Singer: An Album is a reliable guide to the complex, multifaced life and successful career of one of America's greatest storytellers. James Gibbons' commentary relates what is known about Singer's life and helps the reader put Singer's stories in an accurate and carefully documented context. Both new and longtime fans of Singer will find that the information about his years in Warsaw and Bilgoray and his adventure on the beaches of Coney Island and the streets of Manhattan deepens the

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2004

About the author

Ilan Stavans is the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. An award-winning writer and public television host, his books include Growing Up Latino and Spanglish. A native of Mexico City, he lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting approach to writing about an authors life and works. This is a combination of biography, literary criticism, photos, other authors thoughts about Singer inserted into the text and a round table discussion on his works. A really interesting little book and an author that I am getting to like the more that I read him.

[Brian Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

He did eventually become very popular in his lifetime, and there’s the Nobel Prize and all, but this short book still feels something like a validation for my love of Singer and his work given that I know zero other people who read him.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

In its weekly Sunday section, Literary Review, the New York Times features a short q & a with an author. One of the regular questions is: What three authors would you like to invite to dinner? After reading this short biography and commentary on Isaac Bashevis Singer, it only confirms that he'd be the first one I'd invite (along with Isaiah Berlin and Carl von Ossietzky).

This loving portrait of Singer is supplemented by vignettes written by authors who admired him, former colleagues and friends. I think Singer summed up his work perfectly when, in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, that "the pessimism of the creative person is not decadence but a mighty passion for the redemption of man." Very reminiscent of Sternburg's comment about Remarque writing with the "necessary optimism of a pessimist." Highly recommended for anyone who loves Singer's writing.

[David Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

It turns out this sleek little book about author Isaac Bashevis Singer originally accompanied the Library of America's edition of Singer's Collected Stories. It is stamped with the Bookthing stamp of Baltimore, a jewel of a place that furnishes a building full of free books for all comers, so I picked this one up for free. I naturally selected it to complement the Singer kick I am on lately. I returned to reading him after being bowled over by his little novella The Penitent about a man who was a Jewish refugee with his wife from the Holocaust. The two of them immigrated to New York and worked until he became a successful businessman. They lived a materialistic, worldly life and he was corrupted by their set into an adulterous affair. Through the crisis these brought on, he opened to spiritual renewal and became a devoted Jew living in Israel. After that I read the nauseating novel Scum, about a corrupt man's further descent into depths of depravity, even human trafficking and murderous intent and the occult. I didn't like that because there was no redemption. Now I am nearing the end of reading his lively and brilliant collected stories.
As you would expect from the Library of Congress, this sleek books is very nicely put together with key pictures and drawings depicting aspects of his Singer's life. The autobiographical anecdotes shed light on figures and themes in his classic stories. An example is Singer's description of his maternal grandfather: "He was the kind of Rabbi who lived in the past. To the few sophisticates in Bligoray, Grandfather was a fanatic, a purveyor of darkness, but despite this, he was respected and feared… His command was like that of the ancient leaders, and while he lived, Bilgoray remained pious."
I learned from this book the basic outline of his life and enjoyed the enjoyment and recognition of him by others as sharers in the secret.
"I seemed to have been born an anachronism. Yet I was actually comfortable in the role of an anachronism," Singer wrote. He wrote in Yiddish. For the first part of his life, he lived in the shadow of his older brother Joshua Singer, who was a successful writer that wrote the epic novel The Brothers Ashkenazi. He didn't fully come into his own, it seems, until after the death of his brother. The Family Moskat seems to have been Singer's attempt to imitate his brother before he really found his own voice.
He came to known as the voice of Yiddish in the English speaking world, though his religious belief was perhaps heterodox and though he rejected Communism and socialism. Irving Howe recognized Singer's astonishing new contributions and arranged for Saul Bellow to translate "Gimpel the Fool" in one sitting. The aid proved very fruitful but nonetheless Singer didn't really trust these Communists and didn't form a working relationship with them, which I was relieved to hear, because I don't really like them either.
Singer's terse remark about Barbara Streisand's rendering of his short story Yentl in the movie by that name strikes my funny bone: "I must say that Streisand was exceedingly kind to herself. The result is that Miss Streisand is always present, while poor Yentl is absent." He was a bit of a curmudgeon. Robert Giroux, a friend of Singer's, remarked that as he got to know Singer better, he "learned how extremely sensitive and perceptive he was, with wide-ranging interests in almost everything except modern fiction."
Singer captured the world of the Jews of Poland that was wiped out by the Holocaust. They come alive as we read his classic short stories. During this time of a resurgence of anti-Semitism, thinly veiled behind convoluted academic and activist anti-Israel jingoism, backed by money from Qatar and Muslim Brotherhood think tanks, etc. it is refreshing to read such a gifted portraitist of the pre-war Jewish communities. A more robust historical context is furnished and brought to life that testifies to the times as they were, which the bilge of propaganda would wash away too with mindless hate if there were no quiet readers of such fine literature more interested in human truths than ideological conformity to a strategic, if untruthful, line.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This accompanied the centennial edition of Singer's Collected Stories in 2004, as the only Yiddish writer to earn inclusion into not only the company of Nobel Laureates, but into the Library of America. It's a reader-friendly compendium, more like an expanded booklet. There's photos, reminiscences by his peers, critics, heirs to his literary legacy, and/or friends. Also more doodles by Singer than needed.

Its brevity for all the boast of its blurb that somehow this odds-and-ends tribute surpasses what's before been published leaves that claim as hype. But it attests to the mass-market impact among the American and international audiences who came to regard Singer as the maven of lost Yiddishkeit.

This remains arguably true, but truth is he outlasted his brother Israel, and neither Peretz nor Grade can rival Isaac as mastering the command in narratives for children, of his life, in his stories for the New Yorker in particular, or his novels, often adapted from serialization in the Daily Forverts in his "first original language" of Yiddish. Whether magic realism, existential modernism, or examination of those who wound up surviving the Shoah to show up on the streets of Manhattan or Miami, Singer grew to command an enviably broad readership, as I can vouch, far beyond limits of his early career.

As a souvenir of his life, despite the too-brief contents, the roundtable discussion concluding this little book offers insights worth learning from, such as Jonathan Rosen's comparison of The Slave to Moby Dick. Even if Jerome Rothenberg no less than its subject indulges in shameless self-promotion.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never read anything written by Singer but after reading this album I'll definitely give him a chance. Singer is not an extremely popular writer in Poland but he's definitely more American in his texts, hence much more appreciated out there.
This album is a biography of Singer, brief comments from different authors/publishers, and a collections of photographs from his life - a perfect combo if you want to know any writer better. The editors of this book take us on a jounrey through Singer's life back in Poland and in America, showing how many different events in his life influenced his work.
I especially liked brief comments from various writers, mostly regarding their memories of Singer and the influence of his books and stories on their works.

[Ginger Heskett]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14340650

[Zuberino · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyed this