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Rating: 
Summary: Too dark for bedtime reading
Review: I gave this collection of short stories as a housewarming gift. My friend says that this is not bedtime reading, so, WARNING, this collection of short stories can promote nightmares! However, she states that in the daytime, the stories are excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Too dark for bedtime reading
Review: I gave this collection of short stories as a housewarming gift. My friend says that this is not bedtime reading, so, WARNING, this collection of short stories can promote nightmares! However, she states that in the daytime, the stories are excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: Dr. Chekhov, Please Step Aside , , ,
Review: I hesitate to even comment on this book for fear of not doing it justice. It's a collection of the best short stories of the Nobel Prize-winning writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. He definitely is *not* a minimalist in today's fashionable style. You will find fabulous riches here: satire, history, horror, fantasy, faith, despair, wonders. It starts with "Gimpel the Fool" of course; it's all of Singer in a nutshell. Is this poor wanderer of eastern Europe mad, or does he really see the world beyond this one? His kindness and faith mark him as an eternal victim--by this world's standards he is an idiot and easy mark But is he the real human being and his tormentors really just animals? And what sort of God would let it come to that? I love this book with all my heart and fervently advise you to get ahold of it. It might change your life.
Rating:
Summary: You Don't Have to Be Jewish to Love "The Collected Stories"
Review: It almost feels like a guilty pleasure, reading these stories and enjoying them so much. No self-willed stylistic twitchings, no self-conscious twisting and burnishing of sentences or opacity. Pure brilliance, sentence by sentence and, more important, story by story, is what the collection comprises. Somehow, Singer writes page turners that gratify the heart as much as the head. Even if you're a fan of post-modern ironists, take a look at these stories. You'll probably love them. And you don't have to have a working knowledge or, or interest in, Judaism. Beware, however. Disaffection for this collection is a strong indication of a mind in search of a soul.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest short stories collections of all time
Review: Singer is one of the supreme masters of the short story. His stories are filled with incredible energy and life. Demonic lust drives many characters, and one of the reasons he is much loved is his seeming modern depiction of characters who come from the old world, the world of Jewish Poland . But the stories I most love are ones in which a power of beneficence overwhelms in some surprising way. The great Gimpel the Fool is one example of this, the story of the cuckold the eternal innocent and believer who knows once he stops believing in his wife he will stop believing in God and the goodness of the world. Another of these great stories is the Little Shoemakers with its tale of successive generations in old world and new continuing the family trade despite the loss and transformation in tradition time brings. Another of this kind of great story is the 'Spinoza of Market Street' with its revelation of an unexpected love. The list is long of very great and moving stories.Singer is a master- teller who can be stark and frightening at times but gives that sense the great writers' do , of life in literature as something deeply deeply meaningful. Who reads this book will taste life deeply and more deeply love it.
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Summary: Short stories from the master
Review: Welcome to Isaac's world. His short stories take you through his life in New York City, back to Poland, and far back to the villages of his ancestors. It's a world of the occult, imps around every corner, and religeon as a part of daily life.Reading his stories is like getting grandfather's tales about the old country. A little bit spooky, a little bit comforting, and quite a bit nostalgic. Although Jews will probably understand more of the historical references, the stories are well written enough for a broad audience. Perhaps this reader's only regret is not being able to read them in their original Yiddish. The translations are done by an all star cast including Saul Bellow, but perhaps nothing beats the original.
Rating:
Summary: Short stories from the master
Review: Welcome to Isaac's world. His short stories take you through his life in New York City, back to Poland, and far back to the villages of his ancestors. It's a world of the occult, imps around every corner, and religeon as a part of daily life. Reading his stories is like getting grandfather's tales about the old country. A little bit spooky, a little bit comforting, and quite a bit nostalgic. Although Jews will probably understand more of the historical references, the stories are well written enough for a broad audience. Perhaps this reader's only regret is not being able to read them in their original Yiddish. The translations are done by an all star cast including Saul Bellow, but perhaps nothing beats the original.
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