Karen
This is Singer's memoir of growing up as a Hasidic boy in Warsaw before (and during) World War I. His father was a rabbi with a small following, and people from the neighborhood brought him their questions and disputes to solve, while young Isaac observed from the sidelines. There are wonderfully odd characters described with gentleness and affection, as well as a clear eyed description of an insular, patriarchal culture under pressure to change. As Isaac grows older, the stories are more focused on his own experiences and discoveries, and the tension between his older brother and his father is perhaps a shelter for his own growing away from the culture of his upbringing.
I also think an essential part of reading this book is recognizing that the culture Singer describes, as well as the place, and many of the people were destroyed only 20 years later by the Holocaust. He refers to this fact in a couple of places, and most plainly in one of the chapters set in Bilgoray, where he mentions that one of his cousins was the only one of her siblings to survive. At the same time that it is a loving remembrance, it evokes sadness.
I can't believe I got to this point in my life without having read any Isaac Bashevis Singer, but I will surely read more.
This is Singer's memoir of growing up as a Hasidic boy in Warsaw before (and during) World War I. His father was a rabbi with a small following, and people from the neighborhood brought him their questions and disputes to solve, while young Isaac observed from the sidelines. There are wonderfully odd characters described with gentleness and affection, as well as a clear eyed description of an insular, patriarchal culture under pressure to change. As Isaac grows older, the stories are more focused on his own experiences and discoveries, and the tension between his older brother and his father is perhaps a shelter for his own growing away from the culture of his upbringing.
I also think an essential part of reading this book is recognizing that the culture Singer describes, as well as the place, and many of the people were destroyed only 20 years later by the Holocaust. He refers to this fact in a couple of places, and most plainly in one of the chapters set in Bilgoray, where he mentions that one of his cousins was the only one of her siblings to survive. At the same time that it is a loving remembrance, it evokes sadness.
I can't believe I got to this point in my life without having read any Isaac Bashevis Singer, but I will surely read more.