Conversations With Isaac Bashevis Singer

by Richard Burgin, Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer loved to give interviews. He was famous for encouraging interruptions of the solitary task of writing. These twenty-four welcomed interruptions are representative of the many he allowed over a twenty-five-year period. Included here are his conversations with such interviewers as Irving Howe, Laurie Colwin, Richard Burgin, and Herbert R. Lottman. In these talks Singer discusses the nature of his writing, its ethnic roots, his demonology, the importance of free will, and the place of storytelling in human life. The interviews with Singer reveal both his impish sense of humor and a determination that sustained him through many years of limited acclaim and comparative neglect by critics. Yiddishists often faulted him for refusing to use his talent as a force for change in the world, Jewish readers often deplored his use of pre-Enlightenment folk material, and academics could not take too seriously a writer who insisted on telling stories that emphasized plot and character. Yet he was not deterred from his astonishing and beloved work, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literature, Judaica

178 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1985

About the author

Richard Burgin’s stories have won five Pushcart Prizes and been reprinted in numerous anthologies including The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction, The Best American Mystery Stories, and New Jersey Noir (edited by Joyce Carol Oates). He is the author is 16 books including two novels, “Rivers Last Longer” and “Ghost Quartet,” eight collections of short fiction, as well as the interview books “Conversations with Jorge Louis Borges” and “Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer.” His book The Identity Club: New and Selected Stories was listed as one of The Best Books of 2006 by The Times Literary Supplement and as one of the 40 Best Books of Fiction of the last decade by The Huffington Post. Other books have been listed as Notable Books of the Year by The St. Louis Post Dispatch and three times by The Philadelphia Inquirer. In France a Richard Burgin reader, L’Ecume Des Flammes was published in 2011, which received a rave review in Le Monde. He is the founder and current editor of the literary magazine Boulevard.

Reviews

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erstaunlich offen erklärt der Interviewer Richard Burgin, dass zwischen der ersten und der zweiten Hälfte der Interviews 3 Jahre liegen und ihm die erste Hälfte schwach vorkommt. So ist es auch, die Fragen in der ersten Hälfte sind albern und oberflächlich. Auch wenn sich manches wiederholt, hilft das Werk aber bei der Annäherung und dem Verständnis von Person und Werk Singers.

[Lee Kofman · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book of interviews, Bashevis-Singer comes across almost as irritating as his male protagonists usually are – unnecessarily haughty, full of prejudice, sometimes humourless, often quite joyless and didactic, set in his ways. And yet there is some wisdom too to be found there, particularly in his distaste for ideologies. And some (unintentionally, I think) witty moments, like when he says he believes in God but it’s not a good, compassionate sort of God. I also like how idiosyncratic Bashevis-Singer sounds, how little he seems to want to please.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fine, insightful, revelatory discussions of literature and humanity.

[Maria Hrickova · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9