The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer | Isaac Bashevis Singer

The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer | Isaac Bashevis Singer | Wonderful storyteller

books:

The Collected Stor...

	The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983 - 614 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

The forty-seven stories in this collection, selected by Singer himself out of nearly one hundred and fifty, range from the publication of his now-classic first collection, Gimpel the Fool, in 1957, until 1981. They include supernatural tales, slices of life from Warsaw and the shtetls of Eastern Europe, and stories of the Jews displaced from that world to the New World, from the East Side of New York to California and Miami.

Magnificent and Masterful, Spirited and Profound

Isaac Bashevis Singer was a master storyteller and any reader will be well-rewarded for spending time with his "Collected Stories." Many of these stories are set in Poland before World War II or post-war New York City, but there is a spiritual energy that drives all of these tales, regardless of location. Old World demons and devils can be found in "The Unseen," "The Destruction of Kreshev," "Henne Fire," "Zeidlus the Pope," about the Devil tempting a Rabbi into becoming the Pope, and one of the collection's best, "The Dead Fiddler," about a would-be bride inhabited by dueling dybbuks. New World mystical forces are recounted in "Powers," about a man's seductive past, and "The Psychic Journey," about war breaking out during a writer's trip to Israel. Several stories involve survivors of World War II, among them "The Cafeteria," about a woman who imagines seeing Hitler in a New York City deli, and the unexpectedly heartbreaking "The Joke," about a practical joke taken seriously. Every story is deeply felt and richly detailed, including the more comic ones such as "Gimpel the Fool," "The Yearning Heifer," and "The Admirer," about a writer's fan disrupting his day. Choosing favorite stories in this collection is almost impossible, because they are all unforgettable, but ones that resonated most richly for me include "Taibele and her Demon," about a woman's mysterious night visitor, "The Little Shoemakers," about a family of cobblers who courageously survive two world wars, "The Manuscript," about a mistress who saves her lover's novel from destruction, and the transformative "A Crown of Feathers," about a young woman losing and then trying to regain her faith.

for more information click here

Wonderful storyteller

This is the first ive read of Bashevi Singers work but its sure aint the last.
Ive read quite a lot of the classics and more than a couple of the Nobel prize winners, but I can honestly say that I have a hard time remembering such joyous storytelling. Singer was amazing; it all seems so easy when he tells his stories; its almost like the stories flows from his pen.
The fact that the stories often stem from the culturally rich jewish community in Europe makes it even more interesting. We tend to forget today, that much of what we call art was carried at great length by that community, together with the russian.
Anyway...if we forget all this and center on the prose, i end up with the following recommendation:
If you want to read something marvellous, enchanting and extraordinary,
dont miss Singer.

for more information click here

Isaac Bashevis Singer Stories

I was not familiar with Singer's work at all -- having not even seen the movie "Yentl" which was based on one of them, but the stories are quite engaging, with compelling characters and surprising plot twists. Singer is a masterful storytelller; and though obviously rooted in Jewish culture (both his father and grandfather were Rabbis) his exploration of the vicissitudes of life, character and relationships is universal.

Wonderful tale telling history

A collection of Jewish tales, essentially from Poland and full of the fatalistic themes permeating the diaspora, along with a spicy dash of the demonistic.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

products you might be interested in