Gimpel l'idiota

by Isaac Bashevis Singer, Bruno Oddera (Translator)

In questo libro di racconti, Singer sembra voler racchiudere tutto il suo mondo narrativo. Storie già celebri e personaggi meno noti animano queste pagine di demoni e drammi dell'affetto tradito, novelle fantastiche e cronache minute del quotidiano, trame sorprendenti e narrazioni solenni in cui è protagonista il destino. La varietà e la bizzarria di un folklore antico, le credenze, la leggenda hassidica, la cabbala, la vicenda corale della sua gente e il suo passato, l'intreccio spesso torbido dei sentimenti, la passione amorosa, la condanna della solitudine, tutto ciò Singer riesce a convertirlo sempre in un linguaggio dalle tinte forti, che mai perde il suo carattere narrativo.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Jewish, Classics, Literature, Poland, Nobel Prize

286 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Polish American author of Jewish descent, noted for his short stories. He was one of the leading figures in the Yiddish literary movement, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978.
His memoir, "A Day Of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw", won the U.S. National Book Award in Children's Literature in 1970, while his collection "A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories" won the U.S. National Book Award in Fiction in 1974.

Reviews

[Nilguen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most powerful short story that I have read recently. An elderly Gimpel lets us partake in his anecdotes and experiences of his life. He started off as an orphan becoming the alleged scapegoat in a city, then later he becomes the husband of Elka and father to a bunch of children. As a hard-working individual, he even becomes a successfully rich baker until he leaves the city upon Elka´s death to widen his horizons.

Gimpel, ultimately, proves that faith is what keeps him resilient. Entangling himself from this world´s realities by taking refuge in God, he refrains from extreme feelings such as wrath. Elka, who deceived Gimpel all her life, will speak to him in his dreams and tell him about the punishment in the Hereafter. Gimpel, who did not respond by sinning to the sins commited by everyone else, is at peace with himself close to this death. As a matter of fact, he is looking forward to the Hereafter.

So, what´s the morale of the story apart from the religious meaning, whilst the seven sins remain the same whether in Judaism, Christianity or Islam? I am convinced that the ones inflicting pain on Gimpel were punished in this world as well whilst Gimpel was a saint under the disguise of a fool.

Loved the narration with Yiddish words sprinkled in.

I read this story at the best time possible. It really helped me reflect on a few things in my life that I decided to re-prioritize.

Thanks to the Short Story Club!

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[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored Gimpel and found that he was no fool, but rather admirable in his ability to care for those around him, even children that weren't his own. I found his qualities to be endearing and the only fools were the ones who chose to treat him bad.

[Mark André · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story. You can hear the voice in the background of many Am. television sitcoms.

[Sergio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dopo le ottime letture dei romanzi “La Fortezza” e “La Famiglia Moskat”, mi aspettavo di più da questa raccolta di novelle pubblicata da Isaac Bashevis Singer [1903-1991] nel 1957 e invece, tranne una manciata di composizioni all’altezza della fama di questo scrittore, mi riferisco a “Breve Venerdì”, “Piccoli Ciabattini”, “Sotto il Coltello”, “Yentl” e “Taibele e il suo Demone”, la maggior parte dei racconti di questo libro, a mio personale modo di vedere, lascia un po' a desiderare sul piano dell'interesse, soprattutto quando entrano in gioco presenze demoniache, streghe e altri protagonisti della sfera ultraterrena.

[gretl glick · Rating 5 out of 5]

i liked it so much i named my dog after the author.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 3 out of 5]

You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy this charming collection of tales about the Yiddish speaking Jews of Poland. The work is profoundly American. The stories were written in New York at a time when there were more Jews in the city than in Israel and more Yiddish speakers than there had ever been anywhere in the same place. Singer wrote these sweet stories for his fellow New Yorkers who felt tremendous nostalgia for the Jewish communities that they had left behind. "Gimpel the Fool" has all the delights you would find in "Fiddler on the Roof."

The quality of the English text is superb. One of the translators is Saul Bellow who like Singers was a Nobel Prize winner. This is a brilliant anthology brilliantly rendered into English. It is a great American classic.

[John David · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories” was originally published in 1953, and contains ten short stories rife with Singer’s unique fictional voice – full of meditations on mortality, good, and evil, Jewish mythology, and an ability to communicate truths in the folksy, simple yet extraordinarily sophisticated way that characterizes these parabolic stories. Singer’s protagonists live in the Old World in every sense - a world inhabited with dybbuks, qlippoth, and golem who are every bit as real as anyone else. They are not disembodied spirits in “the world beyond.” They quite literally live in your mirror (see “The Mirror”) and come to talk to you after they have died.

In the title story, and maybe one of the more endearing, Gimpel, a baker from Frampol, openly declares in the opening lines “I am Gimpel the Fool. I don’t think myself a fool. On the contrary. But that’s what folks call me.” His innocence and simplicity almost set him up for the reader to expect something more sinister, but his child-like nature abides. Despite marrying a woman who shamelessly cuckolds him time and time and time again, he seems to have a preternatural ability for forgiveness and acceptance. One night, a Spirit of Evil visits him in his sleep and tempts him to deceive the world in the same way that it continues to deceive him. He asks how, and the Spirit responds “you might accumulate a bucket of urine every day and at night pour it into the dough. Let the sages of Frampol eat filth,” and urges him not to believe in God. The spirit of his wife visits him and warns him that just because she was false to him doesn’t mean that everything he’s learned is false. Gimpel is a poignant figure, but one whose goodness consigns him to what others think is foolishness for his entire life.

Singer the parabolist is at his height “The Gentleman from Cracow” wherein a man descends upon Frampol seemingly able to solve many of the city’s problems with his tremendous generosity and wealth. The only man trying to brook his influence on the townspeople of Frampol is old Rabbi Ozer, who keeps warning that he is a satanic influence. With such a heavy-handed theme, Singer does the seemingly impossible here: telling a moralistic tale without taking a cudgel to the reader’s head in order to communicate his message. This might be one of my favorite stories in the collection because its tone has so much in common with many of the others. It is a clearly articulated, well-defined fable that leaves enough room for ambiguity to entice the intelligent reader to visit it more than once.

After this and a couple of other experiences with short stories this year, I think I could reconsider what I think of them. Both this and Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories” are two of the best books I’ve read in the last year. I was in the bookstore the other day and bought “In My Father’s Court,” an autobiographical volume about Singer’s rebellious childhood. These stories more than anything else struck me as the stories of a rebel; the characters are overly credulous yet smart, and deeply religious but speculative and doubting. If it’s anything like these stories, I can’t wait.

[Cynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been thinking and rethinking about these stories for over a year now. So spiritually wise. So socially true. The first story is about Gimpel who a Jewish rabbi might call "a holy fool." Being of long ago Jewish ancestry and being of omnist Christian by practice, I consider Gimpel cautious in youth and wise in old age. All the other stories in the collection are about the wise old ones being ignored while the young less wise ones paying for their rash decisions. Sometimes the young kearn. Sometimes they have no opportunity to do so.

Good news. Now KU has more more story collections of Isaac Bashevis Singer I can borrow. Even if it takes me over a year to figure out each collection, I know I will be enchanted as I ponder.

[Jigar Brahmbhatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Little Shoemakers, with its wholesomeness, remains one of the finest Singer stories I have read. It has the ease and majesty of a classic novel, and it reaches, not for an immediate effect in its closure, but for an after-effect that soothes the heart. You feel content after reading it, and you want to revel in that feeling. It is very easy to use the word "feel good", but it will limit the effect to some storytelling gimmick or suggest some overt sentimentality that goes for titillating the reader, while overlooking the reality of the characters. Something much more graceful is at work here, and Singer's wisdom comes through in the prose.

Abba, the central character, teaches shoe-making to his eldest son:

"Abba himself led the boy down into the cellar and showed him the formula for adding chemicals and various kinds of bark to the tanning fluid. He revealed to him that in most cases the right foot is larger than the left, and that the source of all trouble in the fitting of shoes is usually to be found in the big toes."

I loved how "the source of all trouble..." is to be found in "the big toes"! There is a ring of hard-earned truth in this sentence, and it naturally goes deeper than what it is supposed to mean. The son, Gimpel, decides to leave for America and a moving description follows which I am tempted to paste here:

"When his mother saw that it was settled, she urged him to take at least a jar of preserves, a bottle of cherry juice, bedding, pillows. But Gimpel refused. He was going to steal over the border into Germany, and he stood a better chance if he traveled light. In short, he kissed his mother, said good-bye to his brothers and friends, and off he went. Abba, not wanting to part with his son in anger, took him in the wagon to the station at Reivetz. The train arrived in the middle of the night with a hissing and whistling, a racket and din. Abba took the headlights of the locomotive for the
eyes of a hideous devil, and shied away from the funnels with their columns of sparks and smoke and their clouds of steam. The blinding lights only intensified the darkness. Gimpel ran around with his baggage like a madman, and his father ran after him. At the last moment the boy kissed his father's hand, and Abba called after him, into the darkness, "Good luck! Don't forsake your religion!"

The train pulled out, leaving a smell of smoke in Abba's nostrils and a ringing in his ears. The earth trembled under his feet. As though the boy had been dragged off by demons! When he returned home and Pesha fell on him, weeping, he said to her, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away..."

There is a weight to Singer's writing. His prose is simple yet dense. You can easily glide your eyes over it, but then it continues to grow in your mind. Consider this comment by the poet Ted Hughes, writing for the New York Times: "His [Singer's] powerful, wise, deep, full-face paragraphs make almost every other modern fiction seem by comparison labored, shallow, overloaded with alien and undigested junk, too fancy, fuddled, not quite squared up to life."

And though Singer's work is largely about the collapse of the Hasidic way of life under the pressure of the 20th century, his stories have that already-told, accessible quality that is the mark of good literature, described aptly by Ted Hughes: "Squared up to life"!

[Nikandarov šegrt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Године 1979. БИГЗ једно своје џепно издање процењује на 70 тадашњих динара. Годину дана раније (дакле, 1978), један Јеврејин добија Нобелову награду за књижевност. Тридесет и седам година касније, поменуто издање ће наставити да ћути између џепних издања Булатовића и Сремца (јер, ипак су истог формата!)... "Гимпела" сам почео читати привучен насловом и то потпуно случајно. Рекох себи: "Можда то Еразмо проговара, опет...". Међутим, ипак не - Гимпел је добричина (не нарочито бистра, но ипак!); човек-пекар кога заједница препознаје као наивног, те га (захваљ��јући мекоћи материјала) обликује према сопственим потребама.

Лик Гимпела јесте, у ствари, један социолошки хермафродит - савршена здруженост онога што човек јесте (неискварен, честит, религиозан, ипак лакомислен) и онога што заједница од њега ствара - предмет спрдње. Неприкосновена препуштеност ударцима судбине своје упориште налази у његовој немогућности да се одупре својој добронамерности и лакомислености. А човек кад је добар - добар је безгранично! (Нажалост, исто је и када је глуп...). Но, из превода Андрије Гросбергера издвојио бих:

"(...) Једне ноћи - било је већ тада прошло време жалости - док сам сањао на џаковима брашна, дошао је сам Дух Зла и рекао ми: 'Гимпеле, зашто спаваш?'
'А шта да радим? Нећу ваљда да једем крофне?' рекох ја.
'Цео свет те обмањује,' рече он, 'па би требало да и ти обманеш свет.'
'Како могу ја да обманем цео свет?' упитах га.
Он одговори: 'Можеш да накупиш кофу мокраће, па да сваког дана и сваке ноћи сипаш из ње у тесто. Нека мудраци из Фрампола једу поган.'
'А шта ћу када будем позван пред суд на ономе свету?'
'Онај свет не постоји. Продали су ти рог за свећу и убедили те да поверујеш у шарене лаже. Какве глупости!'
'Добро,' рекох ја, 'а има ли бога?'
'Нема ни бога.'
'Па шта онда постоји?'
'Дубока каљуга.' (...)"

Језива судбина луде Гимпела не би била толико неподношљива да није дата у форми исповести. Гимпелово схватање света, дато са његових усана - а у споју са незгодама у које често упада - атмосферу приче чини веома сивом, проснежном, мучном. Чини ми се да је читање ових 20ак страна било једнако трчању под водом - у једном тренутку се, некад, ипак може стићи од тачке А до тачке Б.

[زینب هاشم‌زاده · Rating 1 out of 5]

نوشته‌ی پشت کتاب:
«احمق‌های شهر چلم سرگذشت خیالی طنزآمیز شهر یا کشورهایی است که حاکمان‌شان دچار توهم رسیدن به قدرت و وسعت یک امپراتوری و جهانی شدن هستند.»
کتاب شامل هشت‌تا داستان طنزه درمورد مردم شهری که همه‌شون احمق هستند اما فکر می‌کنند داناترین مردم جهان‌اند.
من نتونستم باهاش ارتباط برقرار کنم! خوشم نیومد.

[Mahsa Tahmasebi · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب داستان هایی از یک شهر خیالی و گروه شورای آن است. حال این روز هامون بد جور با طنز این کتاب گره خورده و بیشتر غمگین شدم.
اعضای شورا فک میکنند که خیلی باهوشند و با راه حل های به خیال خودشان عالی فقط صورت مسئله را عوض می کنند.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't believe I was over thirty before I finally picked up a book by IBS. (No, not irritable bowel syndrome, Isaac Bashevis Singer.) I felt deeply ambivalent about these stories, because they force me to reckon with how shamefully little I know of my own near-ancestors' culture and customs. My Jewish education had no mention of dibbuks, hell, or harlots; the superstition and misogyny on display here would probably not bother me at all if I had been expecting it. It makes me uncomfortable and a little guilty how strange and Other these Jews in the stories seem to me, a modern and near-secular "culturally Jewish American." I suspect I am not alone in having anticipated a gentler, more comical take than I got. Singer is dark indeed, and I suppose it reflects his experiences in Poland that the cruel and unfaithful rarely, if ever, seem to get their comeuppance. I'm still digesting, still processing, but I wish I had a group of Jewish feminists and perhaps an academic specializing in Jewish history to talk about these stories with me. I think more context would be richly rewarding. That being said, IBS is a fabulous storyteller - in that regard, I was far from disappointed.

[Anne Linstatter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story "Joy" in this book is unforgettable, rich with spiritual meaning, about a rabbi whose children die, who lives in despair without faith for many years. I read it many years ago, decided to use the book this semester in teaching RS 310 Religion & Literature at California State University, Northridge.

All the stories are fascinating puzzles, pieces of the human condition to ponder over and reflect upon. Set in a small town in Poland... before and after the Holocaust. The question asked so often in the early 1950s--"Can meaningful literature be written after this horror? Can it be read?"--is answered in this book.

[Alvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

These well-told stories instantly plunge one into the shtetls of old Poland. Alas, the puritanical, superstitious, and socially constricted nature of that world is offered up without critique, or even comment, which I found unpleasant. By the end of the book I could really see why my grandparents renounced their religion and turned bolshevik.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Singer is just a great storyteller...these stories haven't aged much because they take place in some unknown time full of she-demons and dybbuks, where Satan is always trying to get you.

[Antonino Mangano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il presente libro è una raccolta di racconti dell’autore polacco ebreo, poi naturalizzato americano, Isaac B. Singer, premio Nobel per la Letteratura.
Dato che non posso scrivere un libro intero per commentare ogni racconto, cercherò di dare un giudizio generale sui caratteri ricorrenti e che accomunano pressappoco tutti gli elementi di questa raccolta.
I racconti sono indubbiamente permeati dalla cultura yiddish – la cultura degli ebrei non cresciuti in Palestina e che per lo più sono o erano distribuiti nell’Europa dell’Est -, ma di certo questo non è un pregio né un difetto: semplicemente è una caratteristica interessante che mi ha incuriosito e mi ha permesso di conoscere qualche particolare in più sulla cultura religiosa ebraica, tra demoni, ricorrenze religiose e rituali ad esse connesse.
I racconti sono molto piacevoli, non sono lettura complesse o difficili da comprendere anche da parte di un non ebreo.
La bellezza di questi racconti risiede nei finali di ogni storia. C’è un inizio normalissimo, c’è uno sviluppo con le relative vicissitudini dei protagonisti e poi c’è il finale che spesso ribalta e spiazza ogni aspettativa del lettore; o la conferma, ma con toni che lasciano spiazzati. Ogni racconto, mi sembra filtrato sotto una lente che mescola in modo sapiente note dolci con note amare e i finali sono l’eloquente rappresentazione di questa mia sensazione. Non sono riuscito a comprendere quali fossero le mie sensazioni alla fine della lettura, non capivo se sentirmi soddisfatto per il destino di ogni protagonista o se provare pietà/tristezza per ciò che qualcuno di loro ha ottenuto. Forse è proprio per questa sua capacità di lasciare lievemente spiazzati (perché questi racconti non scandalizzano in modo estremo), di lasciare un retrogusto dolceamaro alla storia che questa lettura merita un voto superiore alle tre stelle.
Nonostante tutto, per quanto possano essere piacevoli, queste storie non mi hanno fatto provare quel trasporto che suscitano le storie veramente avvincenti, quindi credo di essermi ritrovato al cospetto di una lettura che lasci il lettore sulla linea di confine tra la piacevolezza della lettura e la quasi indifferenza posteriore alla chiusura del libro. Penso che questa opera meriti 3.5 stelle più che meritate, ma senza infamia e senza lode.

[Espresso · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is labeled as a parable, though I am not certain it fits that genre, I think perhaps it would be better as a fairy tale, as it requires a greater level of willingness to suspend disbelief. I liked the writing and the layout of the story was good, but I did not like the protagonist.

It may be stated that Gimpel is an example of the dangers of taking all that is told to you as true, and applying unquestioning faith to fallible people as well as to religion, but I feel that there is more to his character than the willingness to be the butt of a joke. His village is cruel to him, his wife uses him, and he cannot find a person, save perhaps the Rabbi, that expresses any willingness to show compassion or even friendship to him, and yet he chooses to believe. He chooses to behave as though he fell for the taunts so that the villagers will not become upset with him, he chooses to be used by his wife, though his love of the children is admirable, when he knew it could not be. These traits are not traits of a likable or even respectable protagonist. Throughout the entirety of the short story I was hoping Gimpel would meet a deservedly painful end. I was disappointed that he did not.

[Emmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had picked this up at a used book shop on a whim. While I enjoyed reading it, and really liked the author's writing style, I was not totally snagged by the stories themselves. For the most part, I found them to be a little depressing:

--A gullible fool is cuckolded by his wife
--A devil seduces a vain young woman
--A notorious wife-killer marries a husband-killer
--A shoemaker's sons grow up and move away to America
--Etc., etc.

However, I rather enjoyed getting a bite-sized glimpse of Jewish culture (pre-WWII), and this book made me curious to read more about it, so that was certainly a plus, but in general, I just wasn't hooked by this book.

[Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gimpel the Fool made the reputation of Isaac Singer, however, it is a regular story about village fool. I didn't read it very carefully. But The Cafeteria is the best short story I've read so far. It has all the elements I've considered valuable for modernists' literature.

Few people can read it in Yiddish, but the translation is one of the best! Well, in this sense, Yiddish Literature needs a reviving! For sure. If I would call it the essence of Jewish Lit in stead of the state of Israel. But past is the past, it cannot be lost, but it is the past.

[Andres Eguiguren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of short stories, my first time to read Bashevis Singer. Published in the early 1950s, the stories mostly take place in small Jewish Polish villages during the interwar period, though one or two of them make reference to the Second World War. It is a world of rabbis, shoemakers, small town merchants, bums, cheating wives, imps, and devils. Reading this collection felt like a real throwback to a time and a place that no longer exists, and it is an interesting place to visit for a few hours.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't feel so extraordinary about this writer .... in particular, I saw nothing spectacular (i.e. different) when I compared with Golem (and other Jewish stories) from Prague, for instance. I feel that the writer is overprized for his mere ability to re-tell similar stories (true histories or imaginary tales) taken from the old Jewish folklore.

Read only if you have time.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories was an interesting foray into Singer's writing. With a heavy focus on Jewish traditions and folklore against a Polish backdrop, Singer focuses mainly on the "seven deadly sins," including gluttony, pride, and avarice.

I'll need to think on the overall experience of reading his work, and will return with a fleshed-out review shortly.

[Janelle Reserva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't get over this book.
There's so much in it you have to dwell about it for months.

[Moulidharan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gimpel the fool & other stories
கிம்பெல் - முட்டாள் மற்றும் பிற கதைகள்

ஆசிரியர் : isaac bashevis singer
சிறுகதை தொகுப்பு
174 பக்கங்கள்

isaac bashevis singer - அமெரிக்கா வை சேர்ந்த நோபல் பரிசு பெற்ற ஒரு முன்னோடி எழுத்தாளர். அவரின் பூர்வீகம் போலந்து. யூதராகிய அவர் புலம்பெயர்ந்து அமெரிக்கா வந்தடைந்து ஒரு எழுத்தாளனாக உருவாகிறார். அவர் இறுதிவரை இட்டிஷ் { yiddish } என்ற மொழியிலே தொடர்ந்து எழுதினார். அந்த மொழியை பேசுவோர் குறைவான மக்களே எனினும், அவர் தொடர்ந்து தன் தாய்மொழியான இட்டிஷ் மொழியிலே எழுதினார். சிறுகதைகள் தான் அவருடைய உலகம். சிறு வயது முதல் தான் சந்தித்த மனிதர்கள் அனைவரையும் தன் சிறுகதைகளின் கதை மந்தார்களாக மாற்றினார். உலக இலக்கியம், அதிலும் சிறுகதை உலகில் அவர் நீங்கா இடம் பிடிக்க இதுவும் ஒரு காரணம். இவரை எனக்கு அறிமுக படுத்திய எஸ் ரா அவர்களுக்குத்தான் நான் நன்றி கூற வேண்டும்.

சிங்கரின் எழுத்து -
சிங்கர் ஒரு மிகச் சிறந்த கதை சொல்லி, அதிலும் அவர்கள் நாடுகளில், ஊர்களில் நடந்த நாட்டுப்புற கதைகள் என்று சொல்லப்படும் - folk stories -ஐ கூறுவதில் தலை சிறந்தவர். எஸ் ரா கூறுவது போல ஒரு வகையில் இவரும் நம் தமிழ் இலக்கிய உலகின் கி. ராஜநாராயணனும் ஒரே விதமான கதை சொல்லிகள் தான். இந்த தொகுப்பில் உள்ள இவருடைய எல்லா கதைகளையும் இவரே முன் நின்று கூறுவது போலத்தான் எழுதியிருக்கிறார். இவருடைய எழுத்தில் எந்த வித ஒளிவு மறைவும் இல்லை, எந்த வித வெளி பூச்சும் இல்லை, நேரடியாக முதல் வரியிலேயே கதையை தொடங்கி விடுகிறார். கதையின் நடுவே பல இடங்களில் ஒற்றை வரிகளில் ஒரு பெரும் வாழ்க்கை தத்துவத்தை போகிற போக்கில் கூறி விட்டு செல்கிறார். " Even a lie must have some truth in it ", " the face of the corpse has the colour of life ", " when the shepherd is blind, the flock goes astray ", " when husband and wife sleeps on same pillow, finally they have the same head ". இப்படி கூறிக்கொண்டே போகலாம்.

சிங்கர் யாரை எழுதுகிறார்?
அவருடைய தந்தை ஒரு மத குரு என்பதால், சிங்கர் தன் தந்தையுடன் நெருக்கமாக வளர்ந்ததால், அவர் கதைகள் முழுக்க வேறு வேறு விதமான மத குருக்கள் வருகிறார்கள். சிங்கர் - எளிய மக்களாகிய செருப்பு தைப்பவர்களையும் பிச்சைக்காரர்களையும், சம்சாரிகளையும் எழுதுகிறார் அதே நேரத்தில் செல்வந்தர்களையும், கனவான்களையும் எழுதுகிறார். சிங்கர் இந்த உலகம் கவனிக்க தவறிய மனிதர்களை தான் தேடி தேடி எழுதுகிறார்.

சிங்கரின் கதைகளில் எங்கு பார்த்தாலும் பிரிவும், பயணமும், தோல்வியும், தேடலும், துக்கமும் நிறைந்து கிடக்கின்றன. தன் பிள்ளைகளை இழந்து இறைவனை கேள்வி கேட்கும் மதகுரு ( joy ) ஒரு பக்கம், 90 வயதில் தன் மொத்த குடும்பத்தையும் இழந்து நாடு விட்டு நாடு பயணம் செய்யும் கிழவர் ஒரு பக்கம் ( The old man), இன்னொரு பக்கம் தன் தந்தையே தன்னை ஏன் வெறுக்கிறார் என்று தெரியாமல் திணறும் மகன் ( Fire ), இந்த உலகமே தன்னை ஏன் ஒரு முட்டாள் என்று ஏமாற்றி ஏமாற்றி புறம் தள்ள பார்க்கிறது என்று வினவும் கிம்பெல் ( Gimpel the fool) இப்படி சிங்கரின் ஆழ்மனதில் தேங்கி நிற்கும் அனுபவங்கள் இந்த கதைகளின் வழி நமக்கு கடத்தப் படுகின்றது.

சிங்கர் - தன் கதைகளில் பல இடங்களில் குட்டி சாத்தான்களையும், பிசாசுகளையும் மனிதர்களை அவர்களின் வாழ்க்கைக்கு மறைமுகமாக துன்பம் தருவது போல் எழுதியிருந்தாலும், எனக்கு தோன்றுவது எல்லாம் மனிதனின் அடங்கா பேராசையைத் தான் அந்த தீய சக்திகள் தூண்டி விடுவதாக தோன்றுகிறது. அந்த ஆசை தீயில் சிக்கி கருகியவர்களின் வாழ்க்கையை தான் அவர் எழுதுகிறார். அதற்கு அந்த தீய சக்திகளை ஒரு புனைவு பொருளாக அவர் உபயோகிக்கிறார். ( The unseen, The mirror, The gentleman from cracow )

ஏன் சிங்கரை வாசிக்க வேண்டும்?
எங்கோ poland, warsaw, Cracow, frampol என்று உலகின் எங்கோ ஒரு மூலையில், உறை பனியில்,உணவிலும், உடையிலும், மொழியிலும் சற்றும் நமக்கு சமந்தம் இல்லாத ஒரு மக்களை பற்றி நாம் ஏன் வாசிக்க வேண்டும்? மனிதர்கள் வாழும் இடமும், பேசும் மொழியும், பண்பாடும் மாறலாம் ஆனால் மனித உணர்வும், உறவுகளும், அந்த உறவுகளுக்குள் உலவும் சிக்கல்களும் உலகில் எந்த மூலைக்கு சென்றாலும் எல்லாமும் நமக்கு நடப்பது போலத்தான் இருக்கும். Unseen கதையில் தன்னை ஏமாற்றி பிரிந்து சென்ற கணவனை ஒரு பிச்சைக்காரனின் கோலத்தில் கண்டவுடன் அவனை ஒரு குழந்தை போல பார்த்துக்கொள்ள தொடங்கி, பின் அவனுடன் மீண்டும் சேர்ந்து வாழ முடியாததை எண்ணி நொடிந்து சாகும் Roise-Tomerl போல எத்தனை மனைவிகளை இங்கு நாம் பார்த்திருக்கிறோம். தன் பிள்ளைகளின் தயவில் வாழ தயங்கி இறுதிவரை தான் செருப்பு தைத்து தான் வாழ்வேன் என்று The little shoemakers கதையில் வாழும் abba நம்முடைய தந்தை அல்லவா. இதனால் தான் நாம் சிங்கரை வாசிக்க வேண்டும், உலக இலக்கியங்களை வாசிக்க வேண்டும்.

இந்த புத்தகம் எனக்கும் சிங்கருக்குமான ஒரு நெடும் பயணத்திற்க்கு முன்பான ஒரு தேநீர் விருந்து தான். தொடர்ந்து சிங்கரோடும், அவருடைய கதை மாந்தர்களோடும் நான் பயணிப்பேன்.

- இர. மௌலிதரன்.

[Diego Garrido · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi desconocimiento de la liturgia y la teología judía (y, por consecuencia, de la cristiana) me impidió captar toda la riqueza simbólica de los relatos de Singer. Aun así, pude rescatar elementos universales que me tocarón como la compasión, la esperanza frente al sufrimiento y la dignidad en la vida cotidiana.


Mis cuentos favoritos fueron aquellos que se inclinan más hacia los santos que hacia los demonios. Relatos como el de la familia de zapateros, “Alegría” o “El anciano” retratan la experiencia humana con una fe obstinada en la bondad y una serenidad que se mantiene incluso ante la adversidad. No es solo hay tentación o castigo: también hay consuelo, memoria y sentido.

Me gustó el libro porque me obligó a reconocer mi ignorancia respecto a los estudios religiosos, un campo que siempre me ha interesado.

En suma, aunque ciertos matices teológicos se me escapan, disfrute la lectura y la recomiendo.

[Yehuda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, didn't love or really get the Gimpel the Fool story, but decided to read on anyway. I loved the rest of the stories. The author is amazing at mixing fantasy elements into the old Jewish religious world of the shtetl. Absolutely recommend this for lovers of Jewish fiction and fantasy alike. I can see why the author won a Nobel Prize.

[Ena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mystical, vivid and memorable - I.B. Singer's stories are gems, all of them. This is the second short story collection by him that I have read and am now looking forward to becoming acquainted with his novels too. I feel that this is an author whose work I will actively seek out and read in its entirety

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great.

Very Jewish, in the best way, but also in the way that it would probably mostly only be appreciated by Jews or folks who are pretty familiar with Jewish storytelling.

[Chrystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars