Singer, Isaac Bashevis (Vol. 1) - Singer, Isaac Bashevis 1904–
Singer, Isaac Bashevis 1904–
Singer, a Polish-born American who writes in Yiddish, is the author of Satan in Goray, Gimpel the Fool, and The Magician of Lublin. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 1-4, rev. ed.)
When I first read "Gimpel the Fool" … I felt not only that I was reading an extraordinarily beautiful and witty story, but that I was moving through as many historical levels as an archaeologist at work. This is an experience one often gets from the best Jewish writers. The most "advanced" and sophisticated Jewish writers of our time—Babel, Kafka, Bellow—have assimilated, even conquered, the whole tradition of modern literature while reminding us of the unmistakable historic core of the Jewish experience. Equally, a contemporary Yiddish writer like Isaac Bashevis Singer uses all the old Jewish capital of folklore, popular speech and legendry, yet from within this tradition itself is able to duplicate a good deal...
[The entire page is 4433 words long]
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