Singer is a master storyteller, a weaver of tales and parables revolving primarily around European Jewish society. His characters live in a world of demons, dybbuks, harpies, incantations, ritual ablutions, amulets, yeshivas, mezuzahs, and Shibtahs. Many of them reside in the twentieth century but abide by customs, rituals, and superstitions as old as recorded time. And all of them are affected, in varying degrees, by one of man's basic instincts: lust.

[In the stories collected in Old Love], Singer evokes exotic and erotic images. In addition, there is always his undercurrent of humor—a light and subtle touch that displays his genuine affection for the common mortals he portrays and their common frailties….

Singer likes to entice his readers much like his characters entice each other. "Two Weddings and One Divorce" begins with a beautiful lure: "One day in autumn, a shoemaker's apprentice committed suicide on Krochmalna Street because his bride to be, a seamstress, betrayed him and married a widower." A short story in one sentence. But it is only a device, an event that gives three of the village elders the opportunity to relate similar, and lengthier, stories.

The eighteen stories in "Old Love" are all gems: witty, entertaining, philosophical, and most of all, highly accurate in their perceptions of our endless attempts to find happiness through love in a chaotic world.