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A Curable Romantic
“I fell in love with Emma Eckstein the moment I saw her from the fourth gallery of the Carl Theater, and this was also the night I met Sigmund Freud.”
So goes the life, times, and loves of Dr. Jakob Sammelsohn, a fairly incurable romantic venturing optimistically through modern history. In this inventive and satiric tour de force, Joseph Skibell, award-winning author of A Blessing on the Moon, presents an unforgettable character,an unsuspecting guide to a world in transition—where the old shadows of superstition are trumped by the wild new claims of science.
Jakob’s journey takes him from his small town on the outskirts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the cultured life of its capital, Vienna, in the 1890s, where our hero—part visionary, part schlemiel—encoutners the luminaries of his time, including the soon-to-be-renowned Dr. Freud and his most famous patient, Emma Eckstein. But his courtship with the Fräulein is fraught with neuroses (naturally) and bedeviled by the appearance of a dybbuk, an amorous ghost from Jakob’s past. Loveless, forlorn, and forced to move on, Jakob is propelled into the heart of the utopian Esperanto movement and into the arms of its loveliest patron, the beautiful Loë Bernfeld. At times, his passion for Loë runs deeper than his fervor for the language of peace and universal brotherhood, but their marriage—as well as the movement—becomes complicated, in no small part owing to the reappearance of the sex-starved and manipulative dybbuk. Pursued by his past all the way to the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, he becomes an unlikely pawn in a battle over the true path to heaven.
A Curable Romantic is a picaresque novel of exile—both personal and historical—that could spring only from the imagination of a virtuoso. Often fantastical but always grounded in tradition and history, it is a rare literary feat—an incomparable, epic comic tale, peopled with characters at once familiar and utterly original who offer a wholly new perspective on the human condition.
So goes the life, times, and loves of Dr. Jakob Sammelsohn, a fairly incurable romantic venturing optimistically through modern history. In this inventive and satiric tour de force, Joseph Skibell, award-winning author of A Blessing on the Moon, presents an unforgettable character,an unsuspecting guide to a world in transition—where the old shadows of superstition are trumped by the wild new claims of science.
Jakob’s journey takes him from his small town on the outskirts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the cultured life of its capital, Vienna, in the 1890s, where our hero—part visionary, part schlemiel—encoutners the luminaries of his time, including the soon-to-be-renowned Dr. Freud and his most famous patient, Emma Eckstein. But his courtship with the Fräulein is fraught with neuroses (naturally) and bedeviled by the appearance of a dybbuk, an amorous ghost from Jakob’s past. Loveless, forlorn, and forced to move on, Jakob is propelled into the heart of the utopian Esperanto movement and into the arms of its loveliest patron, the beautiful Loë Bernfeld. At times, his passion for Loë runs deeper than his fervor for the language of peace and universal brotherhood, but their marriage—as well as the movement—becomes complicated, in no small part owing to the reappearance of the sex-starved and manipulative dybbuk. Pursued by his past all the way to the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, he becomes an unlikely pawn in a battle over the true path to heaven.
A Curable Romantic is a picaresque novel of exile—both personal and historical—that could spring only from the imagination of a virtuoso. Often fantastical but always grounded in tradition and history, it is a rare literary feat—an incomparable, epic comic tale, peopled with characters at once familiar and utterly original who offer a wholly new perspective on the human condition.
593 pages, Hardcover
First published September 7, 2010
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October 9, 2021CW: Rape, suicide, death of a child
Read for the "Read the World" challenge for: Austria 🇦🇹
I can't rate this book. I can't do it. I have no idea how to assign a score point or numerals to the experience I had while reading this novel. I thought about it for a long time while I was reading and there are just too many conflicting scores and too many ideas that are just too big for me to give it a score from 1 to 5.
First and foremost, I'm sorry, but this book isn't for goyim. It just isn't. And if anyone who is not Jewish is interested in reading it, all I ask is that they please find a friend who is Jewish and is willing to help them balance their ideas coming through this wild book.
The concepts, both religiously and plot-wise, are extremely seeped in Ashkenazi and Yiddish culture to a point where it's difficult to describe to non-Jews.
The best I can explain is to tell you what a "Jewish Joke" is. It's a self-derogatory, particularly sarcastic breed of humor, sometimes similar to the Millennial concepts of suicide and death jokes, but about an entire culture rather than a personal comment. Which can be funny, when told well to the right group of people, or disastrous when told poorly or to those who don't get it.
This book is the unfunny version of the Jewish Joke. I don't mean unfunny as in bad, though, I just mean more serious. While there are moments of humor (whether they're actually funny or not is entirely another matter) overall the ideas this book plays with are thoughtful and specific to the culture that emerged from the shtetls of the turn of the century.
Skibell is generally a very aware author. I didn't particularly like any of his characters; I would, in fact, describe more than one of them as "insufferable". I thought the portrayal of the women was flat and prop-like overall, which was disappointing, but there was a strange depth to many of his male characters.
For example, Sigmund Freud, a Viennese Jew, is a character. My own personal opinions of Freud are resoundingly negative, and I found myself rolling my eyes as our narrator idealized and idolized Freud's every action for almost 200 pages. I was afraid the author might feel the same! But as the plot progressed, the narrator began to see Freud in a different light and I came to realize that rather than letting his own opinions crowd the page, Skibell had simply let his character's opinions shine through first. It was something of a strange experience, but the gradualness of the change was extremely commendable.
The exploration of language and Jewish lore are my two favorite parts of this novel.
Much of the novel is written in Hebrew and Yiddish, so those without a background in the Hebrew alphabet would absolutely struggle while reading this. But it was very interesting and kind of cool to find myself stopping and having to reverse my reading so I could follow the Hebrew words in the right order. (Hebrew is read from right to left, the opposite of English.) The origins of a language called Esperanto are also explored, also created by a Jewish man, from Bialystok, in the late 1800s.
The mysticism and the old ideas of Judaism that are less commonly discussed now also very much caught my attention.
There's a concept in Judaism that all the souls of every Jew was there at Mt. Sinai when Moses came with the ten commandments. There are many ways to interpret this but Skibell chose a path of reincarnation. It was a motif throughout and well executed.
There were also Dybbuks, basically restless souls who possess people like Christian demons. There's not nearly enough representation of them in current media and I really enjoyed the whole sequence.
There's so much to unpack in this novel that I wouldn't know how to start. But even when I wasn't enjoying the characters or some small parts of the plot, it still made me feel things.
So, highly rated or not, a successful piece of literature in my eyes.
Read for the "Read the World" challenge for: Austria 🇦🇹
I can't rate this book. I can't do it. I have no idea how to assign a score point or numerals to the experience I had while reading this novel. I thought about it for a long time while I was reading and there are just too many conflicting scores and too many ideas that are just too big for me to give it a score from 1 to 5.
First and foremost, I'm sorry, but this book isn't for goyim. It just isn't. And if anyone who is not Jewish is interested in reading it, all I ask is that they please find a friend who is Jewish and is willing to help them balance their ideas coming through this wild book.
The concepts, both religiously and plot-wise, are extremely seeped in Ashkenazi and Yiddish culture to a point where it's difficult to describe to non-Jews.
The best I can explain is to tell you what a "Jewish Joke" is. It's a self-derogatory, particularly sarcastic breed of humor, sometimes similar to the Millennial concepts of suicide and death jokes, but about an entire culture rather than a personal comment. Which can be funny, when told well to the right group of people, or disastrous when told poorly or to those who don't get it.
This book is the unfunny version of the Jewish Joke. I don't mean unfunny as in bad, though, I just mean more serious. While there are moments of humor (whether they're actually funny or not is entirely another matter) overall the ideas this book plays with are thoughtful and specific to the culture that emerged from the shtetls of the turn of the century.
Skibell is generally a very aware author. I didn't particularly like any of his characters; I would, in fact, describe more than one of them as "insufferable". I thought the portrayal of the women was flat and prop-like overall, which was disappointing, but there was a strange depth to many of his male characters.
For example, Sigmund Freud, a Viennese Jew, is a character. My own personal opinions of Freud are resoundingly negative, and I found myself rolling my eyes as our narrator idealized and idolized Freud's every action for almost 200 pages. I was afraid the author might feel the same! But as the plot progressed, the narrator began to see Freud in a different light and I came to realize that rather than letting his own opinions crowd the page, Skibell had simply let his character's opinions shine through first. It was something of a strange experience, but the gradualness of the change was extremely commendable.
The exploration of language and Jewish lore are my two favorite parts of this novel.
Much of the novel is written in Hebrew and Yiddish, so those without a background in the Hebrew alphabet would absolutely struggle while reading this. But it was very interesting and kind of cool to find myself stopping and having to reverse my reading so I could follow the Hebrew words in the right order. (Hebrew is read from right to left, the opposite of English.) The origins of a language called Esperanto are also explored, also created by a Jewish man, from Bialystok, in the late 1800s.
The mysticism and the old ideas of Judaism that are less commonly discussed now also very much caught my attention.
There's a concept in Judaism that all the souls of every Jew was there at Mt. Sinai when Moses came with the ten commandments. There are many ways to interpret this but Skibell chose a path of reincarnation. It was a motif throughout and well executed.
There were also Dybbuks, basically restless souls who possess people like Christian demons. There's not nearly enough representation of them in current media and I really enjoyed the whole sequence.
There's so much to unpack in this novel that I wouldn't know how to start. But even when I wasn't enjoying the characters or some small parts of the plot, it still made me feel things.
So, highly rated or not, a successful piece of literature in my eyes.
September 21, 2013
Science, religion, and language intersect in this edgy, Judeo-mystic satire about love, brotherhood, and neuroses in fin-de-siècle Vienna. In 1895, oculist Jakob Sammelsohn meets Sigmund Freud on the same night that he eyes and falls in love with Freud's primary patient, Emma Eckstein. As Jakob is guided into Freud's world of psychoanalysis, he reluctantly becomes a guide himself. He plunges into the mythological realm of a dybbuk, the dislocated spirit of his dead wife, Ita, who possesses and inhabits Emma. Or so Ita-as-Emma claims. As the relationship intensifies between Jakob, Freud, and Emma, Ita's haunting voice lures Jakob into a psychosexual seduction.
But here in Vienna, the cultural center of the world, supernatural notions and Jewish folklore is rejected in favor of more intrepid theories of science and psychology. Freud believes Emma is in the throes of hysteria, while his friend, Dr. Fliess, advances the theory of "nasal reflex neurosis" as the source of all unhappiness. In the meantime, Jakob just wants to lose his virginity. His tyrannical father, who spoke to him only in Hebrew scripture, forced him to marry Ita, the village "idiot," after the first forced marriage to Hindele ended in chaste disaster. Just after the wedding, Ita fled and drowned herself. But she is back and commanding Jakob with menace and affection.
Jakob later meets Dr. Ludvik Zamenhof, a half-blind, retired oculist and language enthusiast. Zamenhof's aim is to join all of humanity in a utopian, universal language called Esperanto. When Jakob meets the radiant Esperanto patron, Loe Bernfeld, he is smitten. Subsequently, Jakob is thrust into an idealistic world of love and linguistics--the neutral tongue to unite the world and a passionate one to join him with Loe. But the ether world has a different design on this incurable romantic.
Jakob's Hebraic-Homeric journey is full of colorful and magical characters, such as bickering, burly angels; a bedeviling dybbuk; a wicked demon child; and zealous polyglots, to name just a few. A clash of the titans of intellect and faith crosscut through the leviathans of lexicon and argot. The story follows Jakob from the countryside of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to the cultural hub of Vienna, from the terrifying streets and ghetto of Warsaw, and to celestial, rarefied dimensions.
"Indeed, I was quite the romantic. A man would have to be heartless not to be, and a fool not to outgrow it. Of course, every Jew wishes to summon the Messiah, to draw him down, through the force of his own goodness, from the throne upon which he sits chained in the Heavens. But one might profitably ask: Who has chained him there, if not the Lord Himself, the devil being a theological convenience we Jews...forbid ourselves?"
Skibell's tale is wholly imaginative and inventive, with ripe and rollicking prose and outrageous, unforgettable characters. In addition, it is peppered with an array of languages and dialog, most notably Hebrew and the enigmatic Esperanto, which endow symbolic and metaphoric texture to the narrative. At times, he is overwrought and long-winded, dawdling down his shadowy side streets and rambling for too long in his self-indulgent thoughts. But his ardent, spunky voice keeps the reader engaged and hooked in this fantastical and sometimes unearthly odyssey.
But here in Vienna, the cultural center of the world, supernatural notions and Jewish folklore is rejected in favor of more intrepid theories of science and psychology. Freud believes Emma is in the throes of hysteria, while his friend, Dr. Fliess, advances the theory of "nasal reflex neurosis" as the source of all unhappiness. In the meantime, Jakob just wants to lose his virginity. His tyrannical father, who spoke to him only in Hebrew scripture, forced him to marry Ita, the village "idiot," after the first forced marriage to Hindele ended in chaste disaster. Just after the wedding, Ita fled and drowned herself. But she is back and commanding Jakob with menace and affection.
Jakob later meets Dr. Ludvik Zamenhof, a half-blind, retired oculist and language enthusiast. Zamenhof's aim is to join all of humanity in a utopian, universal language called Esperanto. When Jakob meets the radiant Esperanto patron, Loe Bernfeld, he is smitten. Subsequently, Jakob is thrust into an idealistic world of love and linguistics--the neutral tongue to unite the world and a passionate one to join him with Loe. But the ether world has a different design on this incurable romantic.
Jakob's Hebraic-Homeric journey is full of colorful and magical characters, such as bickering, burly angels; a bedeviling dybbuk; a wicked demon child; and zealous polyglots, to name just a few. A clash of the titans of intellect and faith crosscut through the leviathans of lexicon and argot. The story follows Jakob from the countryside of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to the cultural hub of Vienna, from the terrifying streets and ghetto of Warsaw, and to celestial, rarefied dimensions.
"Indeed, I was quite the romantic. A man would have to be heartless not to be, and a fool not to outgrow it. Of course, every Jew wishes to summon the Messiah, to draw him down, through the force of his own goodness, from the throne upon which he sits chained in the Heavens. But one might profitably ask: Who has chained him there, if not the Lord Himself, the devil being a theological convenience we Jews...forbid ourselves?"
Skibell's tale is wholly imaginative and inventive, with ripe and rollicking prose and outrageous, unforgettable characters. In addition, it is peppered with an array of languages and dialog, most notably Hebrew and the enigmatic Esperanto, which endow symbolic and metaphoric texture to the narrative. At times, he is overwrought and long-winded, dawdling down his shadowy side streets and rambling for too long in his self-indulgent thoughts. But his ardent, spunky voice keeps the reader engaged and hooked in this fantastical and sometimes unearthly odyssey.
July 4, 2024
Like another reviewer, I'm not sure what I just read but I think I really liked it...? I definitely felt like Yankl and I were in a relationship by the end, given the mental and emotional energy I was putting into his story.
April 1, 2011
This was certainly something different!! I'm not sure however if I would have enjoyed it half as much had I read it as opposed to hearing it read fabiulously by Jeff Woodmen! He was the perfect choice for narrator! I'm very glad I picked this one up. My reading choices these days are all over the map! And I am thrilled by it.
There was so much going on in ACR...everything from forced childhood marriages...forced divorces.... A young Sigmund Freud.... (and all his colleagues of the time) ...Demon (Dubbuk) possession ... Hebrew faith issues and family life... The Espiranto Language movement ... WW1.... angels... Getting into visit heaven... A romance... A Suicide...reincarnation...And MORE!! You name it! And it was all fascinating!
A very long audio book at 22 hours and 24 minutes however it was always
Moving always changing it kept me interested as it was always throwing something else something crazy and different at me to keep me entertained. I didn't know which way the story was headed and when I finally thought I had it it would go off in a new direction.
I really, completely enjoyed this story. My only gripe was the ending was a bit anticlimactic after all the hills and valleys the author had me climbing up and over and down. So that left me a bit like ..."Oh so it's done then...." I would definitely have liked a bigger more dramatic ending to keep in line with the big dramatic crazy story. But all in all a GREAT read! (a fabulous audio book!)
There was so much going on in ACR...everything from forced childhood marriages...forced divorces.... A young Sigmund Freud.... (and all his colleagues of the time) ...Demon (Dubbuk) possession ... Hebrew faith issues and family life... The Espiranto Language movement ... WW1.... angels... Getting into visit heaven... A romance... A Suicide...reincarnation...And MORE!! You name it! And it was all fascinating!
A very long audio book at 22 hours and 24 minutes however it was always
Moving always changing it kept me interested as it was always throwing something else something crazy and different at me to keep me entertained. I didn't know which way the story was headed and when I finally thought I had it it would go off in a new direction.
I really, completely enjoyed this story. My only gripe was the ending was a bit anticlimactic after all the hills and valleys the author had me climbing up and over and down. So that left me a bit like ..."Oh so it's done then...." I would definitely have liked a bigger more dramatic ending to keep in line with the big dramatic crazy story. But all in all a GREAT read! (a fabulous audio book!)
July 17, 2011
Well this was a kind of all over type of book- unlike any other book I have read. You can usually figure out a book half-way through or even just from the cover but this book was all over the place.
Will I ever read it again, no. Do I want to own it, no. Did I enjoy every minute of listening to it, YES!
The other thing I found interesting about this book was that the main character was a lot more passive- I mean he really was more like a secondary or peripheral character and everything else was kind of just occuring around him (as opposed to taking an active part in his life)
The ending was kind of anticlimatic but really where can the author go when he has already gone to heaven, holocaust, spirit possesion, esperanto and psychoanalysis- everything is pale in comparison to that.
While I think the theme of the book is myth vs reality
my husband thinks the book is about "The jewish people just wanting to have a home, peace, and a belief"
not sure where he got that from in the book.... but to be fair he just listened to the very first part and the very last part.
Will I ever read it again, no. Do I want to own it, no. Did I enjoy every minute of listening to it, YES!
The other thing I found interesting about this book was that the main character was a lot more passive- I mean he really was more like a secondary or peripheral character and everything else was kind of just occuring around him (as opposed to taking an active part in his life)
The ending was kind of anticlimatic but really where can the author go when he has already gone to heaven, holocaust, spirit possesion, esperanto and psychoanalysis- everything is pale in comparison to that.
While I think the theme of the book is myth vs reality
my husband thinks the book is about "The jewish people just wanting to have a home, peace, and a belief"
not sure where he got that from in the book.... but to be fair he just listened to the very first part and the very last part.
May 25, 2017
Ranging anywhere from late 19th century through the twentieth century, this novel certainly has a full time span. It includes great minds and movements of the times (Sigmund Freud, Esperanto, the Resistence movement) as characters or events of the plot. The narrative makes you feel as if you are living through the events of the time and surrounding yourself with all the influentials of the day. In terms of immersion through narration, this novel works.
The problem that kept me from loving this read, is that I found the plot too "simple" to sustain all of the time the novel spans. The idea that love transcends various incarnations, as it does for Yacob and Ita here, is a nice idea, but I think I would have enjoyed the novel more had that part of the story remained in one period of time rather than watching and waiting, as Yacob does, for Ita's pop up in some other body. The inclusion of angels into the narrative does add an interesting boost to the piece, as how often do characters in novels get to converse with angels, but that alone only comes much later in the novel.
In summation, I would say this is a good starting point for someone who would like a narrative introduction to the historical relevence of certain movements and humans of that time. Sigmund Freud is a "Google-able" character for instance. Esperanto was actually being pushed for at the time. The plot of the story itself though, isn't nearly so memorable as these extras and that's despite its large page count. I guess I had hoped to feel more care in existence between Yacob and Ita and since that wasn't established, the reality of the entire plot was lessened for me.
The problem that kept me from loving this read, is that I found the plot too "simple" to sustain all of the time the novel spans. The idea that love transcends various incarnations, as it does for Yacob and Ita here, is a nice idea, but I think I would have enjoyed the novel more had that part of the story remained in one period of time rather than watching and waiting, as Yacob does, for Ita's pop up in some other body. The inclusion of angels into the narrative does add an interesting boost to the piece, as how often do characters in novels get to converse with angels, but that alone only comes much later in the novel.
In summation, I would say this is a good starting point for someone who would like a narrative introduction to the historical relevence of certain movements and humans of that time. Sigmund Freud is a "Google-able" character for instance. Esperanto was actually being pushed for at the time. The plot of the story itself though, isn't nearly so memorable as these extras and that's despite its large page count. I guess I had hoped to feel more care in existence between Yacob and Ita and since that wasn't established, the reality of the entire plot was lessened for me.
June 20, 2011
A fabulously inventive tale, richly written. Initially, I felt I was reading a fin de siecle author and was about to embark on a straightforward and very amusing coming of age set against interesting times. The self-effacing hero, his hopeless love for an unattainable woman, his constant social blunders enchanted. Then things took a twist. At first, I was put off, thinking Oh,no!Dybukks? Must you? And then the skill and charm of the narrative grabbed me back, reeled me in yet again for a different kind of adventure, this one metaphysical at heart yet as comic as what had gone before. Easy to read, but very difficult for a writer to pull off, A Curable Romantic is well worth the time. I don't think I've read a 600 page novel so fast ever. And the last line still makes me chuckle, nearly a month after finishing it. Bravo. Encore.
June 30, 2012
I loved this book. It's a big, daunting novel, but it's got Judaism, psychology (Sigmund Freud), dybbuks, Reincarnation, life in turn of the century Vienna (and Russia), Esperanto (actually, way too much Esperanto, especially when it gets into the interminable debates about how to update the language), WW2 Nazis, and even somewhat heartless angels. The narrator is self-deprecating and insecure but he really develops (thank God for that). This is a sprawling epic that is touchingly human, romantic, funny, and smart. The language and dialogue impress, and it's a huge quilt of topics that some readers aren't going to be able to process, but overall, I found it a joy to read.
June 13, 2012
The short version: Love transcends death. But this book is so much more than that: the narrator works with Sigmund Freud and his most famous patient, is part of the Esperanto language movement, finds himself in a ghetto during WWII, and then travels to heaven and back--all while his soul mate appears as new characters in different segments of his life. Skibell's world(s) are fascinating. Parts of this novel got a little long, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
September 25, 2012
It took me a very long time to finish this book, not because it dragged, but because it was so delicious that I wanted to savor every morsel. Part historical fiction, part Jewish fairy tale, part linguistic adventure, I recommend this to all who are looking for a special reading treat that lingers in your mind and heart.
May 26, 2015
LIke the White Hotel, only black comedy: Freud's a character and so is a woman who could be a composite of all of Freud's notable female patients -- but other ingredients include Esperanto, Jewish and the Return of the Repressed in the form of a female dybbuk. Would have preferred more dybbuk and less Esperanto, but that's just me.
March 12, 2011
Love the premise, the historical characters, and the nuance of storycraft! While the ending seemed a little lackluster, the twists and turns for page 550 were fantastical and fantastic. I much adored this novel.
April 5, 2014
While I was reading this book I had the thought that this was something of a forest Gump goes to Vienna. Young rather clueless man meets the luminaries of his day.
It's alright, but nothing all that special.
It's alright, but nothing all that special.
November 2, 2010
It's a gripping and playful read ... but seriously playful. The language is also extremely crafted and original.
December 23, 2011
A strange apocalyptic picaresque about dybbuks, Esperanto, Dr. Freud, and the Holocaust . . . all held together by our dubious hero, Dr. Sammelsohn. Quite the adventure.
May 2, 2024
5 stars for good writing (original similes, turns of phrase, depth of psychological insights, and brilliant observation of peoples' gestures, garb, mannerisms; and a fair amount of humor), but long before the end of the first part (it has 3 parts), the verbosity wore me out and I felt that it was going nowhere - and the humor, as often happens, ceased to keep me interested. Deft writing, cute, but I stopped caring about the protagonist's inner turmoil. (Protagonist reminded me somewhat of Woody Allen when he plays himself in one of his movies ... lots of cleverness and angst and tortured thrashing around ... but to what end?). So, 1-star for interest. So, on average, 3-stars. But I will probably get around to trying another of Skibell's novels.
May 26, 2018
I thought a lot of the concepts were interesting, at first. Then it got weird, too weird. Then it got silly, and not in a good way. It completely lost me and I had to trudge through the last couple hundred pages. Sorry, wasn’t for me.
December 31, 2018
The history of Esperanto, Freud, possession by dybbuk, longing, Jewish culture. A sprawling book, but always compelling.
December 27, 2025
“I fell in love with Emma Eckstein the moment I saw her from the fourth gallery of the Carl Theater, and this was also the night I met Sigmund Freud.”
This is an eclectic work of fiction written for anyone, young and old -those interested in literature. The dialogue reveals the personality and biography of the characters both fictional and not. Dr Jacques Sammelsohn (born 1874), the protangonist is 21 and Dr Sigmund Freud is 39 during this time period.
Discussions of any and everything from mensuration, noses and genitalia to death date calculated by formula occur among the doctors, Wilhelm Fliess, Rie, Freud. It is the year 1895.
"I spent a week in a delirious cloud."
Jacques Sammelsohn continues to pursue Fraulein Emma Eckstein who is very unwell, according to all the doctors including Sigmund Freud, Rie, who are treating her. He finally meets her in an incongruous way, but only to find out she is in love with someone else. Very interesting! How stupid he must have felt.
Sammelsohn recalls his childhood raised by a father who quoted the Torah in any disciplining he did with his son. His knowledge of the scriptures was so complete, he could carry a complete conversation with phrases from the Torah or Talmud but Jacques said he never understood what he was staying. He met Avrum who secretly gave him 'forbidden' books to read -Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Gorki, Mapu. When he was discovered, he was 'married off' at the age of twelve.
His father, a sickly man had dedicated long hours in bed to the Talmud. Still, he was able to marry at age seventeen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Note to me on Freud:
The Ego and the Id by Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939 )
About "the id, ego, and superego"
These are three components of the psyche proposed by Sigmund Freud.
The id is the primitive, unconscious part driven by instinct and the pleasure principle.
The ego is the realistic, decision-making part that mediates between the id's desires, the superego's morals, and external reality.
The superego represents internalized morals and values, pushing for perfection and acting as a conscience.
This is an eclectic work of fiction written for anyone, young and old -those interested in literature. The dialogue reveals the personality and biography of the characters both fictional and not. Dr Jacques Sammelsohn (born 1874), the protangonist is 21 and Dr Sigmund Freud is 39 during this time period.
Discussions of any and everything from mensuration, noses and genitalia to death date calculated by formula occur among the doctors, Wilhelm Fliess, Rie, Freud. It is the year 1895.
"I spent a week in a delirious cloud."
Jacques Sammelsohn continues to pursue Fraulein Emma Eckstein who is very unwell, according to all the doctors including Sigmund Freud, Rie, who are treating her. He finally meets her in an incongruous way, but only to find out she is in love with someone else. Very interesting! How stupid he must have felt.
Sammelsohn recalls his childhood raised by a father who quoted the Torah in any disciplining he did with his son. His knowledge of the scriptures was so complete, he could carry a complete conversation with phrases from the Torah or Talmud but Jacques said he never understood what he was staying. He met Avrum who secretly gave him 'forbidden' books to read -Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Gorki, Mapu. When he was discovered, he was 'married off' at the age of twelve.
His father, a sickly man had dedicated long hours in bed to the Talmud. Still, he was able to marry at age seventeen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Note to me on Freud:
The Ego and the Id by Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939 )
About "the id, ego, and superego"
These are three components of the psyche proposed by Sigmund Freud.
The id is the primitive, unconscious part driven by instinct and the pleasure principle.
The ego is the realistic, decision-making part that mediates between the id's desires, the superego's morals, and external reality.
The superego represents internalized morals and values, pushing for perfection and acting as a conscience.
October 4, 2010
I was a fan of the tv show Frasier. Dr. Frasier Crane was a psychiatrist and the type of refined aesthete who would discuss his blend of bath salts on his radio show with the quip “Love does enter through the nose.” This naturally leads to his being lampooned by other radio hosts, but as it turns out he was not the first psychiatric proponent of such a theory.
Dr. Wilhelm Fliess, a German otolaryngologist, devised a theory of reflex nasal neuroses, which drew a direct link between the nose and the genitals. His friend and confidant Dr. Sigmund Freud espoused this radical thinking. Freud recommended that his patient Emma Eckstein undergo a procedure that Fliess concocted with disastrous results for the young woman’s face.
Peering through the curtains at the side of this historical stage is Dr. Jakov Sammelsohn, an oculist and errant Jew who chases Fraulein Eckstein into Freud’s orbit. Sammelsohn entreats Freud to introduce him to the hysterical young woman, and Freud only relents in the interest of analysis. Eckstein’s condition has manifested an interest in Sammelsohn, and Freud employs him to draw it out. Is it Eckstein’s condition, or can it be Ita, Sammelson’s spurned wife, returning as a dybbuk to possess Eckstein’s body? Was it the dybbuk’s departure or the doctor’s delusion that dealt the damage? Old World disbeliefs vie with “modern medicine” in this new interpretation of a famous case by Joseph Skibell.
Sammelsohn’s second encounter with a great thinker is also female-driven. He doesn’t take to his fellow oculist Dr. Zamenhof’s linguistic aspirations until he meets Loë Bernfeld, an ardent supporter of the universal language Esperanto. A language intended to cross all cultural barriers becomes the language of their courtship, proving that it can change the heart of one man if not all mankind. Esperanto’s embrace is directly related to Loë’s embrace of Yakov, as its rejection.
Later in life he travels to Warsaw with the ill-conceived notion of taking one of Zamenhof’s daughters as his wife. History moves about him once more and he is enclosed within the Warsaw ghetto. This third section held the most appeal for me – Mila 18 by Leon Uris is a sentimental favorite – although it was the least satisfying. It’s not without its otherworldly charm, but it has the feel of a tacked-on dénouement rather than a full third of the book. That was my impression from reading the advance reader’s copy (furnished by the fabulous Phoebe Gaston) at any rate; the finished product is likely another first-rate publication from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
Dr. Wilhelm Fliess, a German otolaryngologist, devised a theory of reflex nasal neuroses, which drew a direct link between the nose and the genitals. His friend and confidant Dr. Sigmund Freud espoused this radical thinking. Freud recommended that his patient Emma Eckstein undergo a procedure that Fliess concocted with disastrous results for the young woman’s face.
Peering through the curtains at the side of this historical stage is Dr. Jakov Sammelsohn, an oculist and errant Jew who chases Fraulein Eckstein into Freud’s orbit. Sammelsohn entreats Freud to introduce him to the hysterical young woman, and Freud only relents in the interest of analysis. Eckstein’s condition has manifested an interest in Sammelsohn, and Freud employs him to draw it out. Is it Eckstein’s condition, or can it be Ita, Sammelson’s spurned wife, returning as a dybbuk to possess Eckstein’s body? Was it the dybbuk’s departure or the doctor’s delusion that dealt the damage? Old World disbeliefs vie with “modern medicine” in this new interpretation of a famous case by Joseph Skibell.
Sammelsohn’s second encounter with a great thinker is also female-driven. He doesn’t take to his fellow oculist Dr. Zamenhof’s linguistic aspirations until he meets Loë Bernfeld, an ardent supporter of the universal language Esperanto. A language intended to cross all cultural barriers becomes the language of their courtship, proving that it can change the heart of one man if not all mankind. Esperanto’s embrace is directly related to Loë’s embrace of Yakov, as its rejection.
Later in life he travels to Warsaw with the ill-conceived notion of taking one of Zamenhof’s daughters as his wife. History moves about him once more and he is enclosed within the Warsaw ghetto. This third section held the most appeal for me – Mila 18 by Leon Uris is a sentimental favorite – although it was the least satisfying. It’s not without its otherworldly charm, but it has the feel of a tacked-on dénouement rather than a full third of the book. That was my impression from reading the advance reader’s copy (furnished by the fabulous Phoebe Gaston) at any rate; the finished product is likely another first-rate publication from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
March 7, 2022
2010 Book #26
4.5 starts
Very well done. This was an excellent book - a bit long in the middle, but given the wit and incredible writing surrounding it, the length and bit of boredom there was quite forgivable (this coming from a reader who won't seek out books much longer than 300 pages -- this volume being double that.)
I looked around the internet for reviews of this book, and it seems not a lot of people have read it (as of this writing, my review is the first one at Shelfari!). And yet, A Curable Romantic has all the makings of a best-seller, so I can't understand why no one is buying it. Hopefully sales will catch on, because there is a lot to love in this book.
This is the story of Jacob Sammelsohn, told in three-books-in-one. In the first book, we learn that Jacob was born in the late 1800's in a small eastern Eurpean village to an uber pious Jewish father. Unfortunately, Jacob was a young free-thinker. First, his father punished him for this by making him wed at a young age. (Twice!) When that didn't work, his father then exiled him from his family for his sins. After moving to Vienna and becoming an oculist, he met a young Dr. Sigmund Freud and Freud's patient, Emma Eckstein. Dr. Freud's diagnosis of Emma was hysteria, but it was a highly unusual case, as the reader soon finds out. (Saying anymore would reveal spoilers).
In Book 2, the longest of the three (hang in there, reader!), Dr. Sammelsohn befriends the inventor of the Esperanto universal language, and among other adventures, suffers through a long, tedious committee meeting regarding universal language adoptions and reforms. In Book 3, World War I comes and goes and World War II begins and Dr. Sammelsohn finds himself a Jew in a Warsaw ghetto. But the best, and laugh-out-loud funniest, part of the book is the last 25 pages as Jacob tours Heaven! (Chef's kiss!)
My edition was an advanced reading copy that had a few grammatical and formatting errors, but did not detract from the story.
4.5 starts
Very well done. This was an excellent book - a bit long in the middle, but given the wit and incredible writing surrounding it, the length and bit of boredom there was quite forgivable (this coming from a reader who won't seek out books much longer than 300 pages -- this volume being double that.)
I looked around the internet for reviews of this book, and it seems not a lot of people have read it (as of this writing, my review is the first one at Shelfari!). And yet, A Curable Romantic has all the makings of a best-seller, so I can't understand why no one is buying it. Hopefully sales will catch on, because there is a lot to love in this book.
This is the story of Jacob Sammelsohn, told in three-books-in-one. In the first book, we learn that Jacob was born in the late 1800's in a small eastern Eurpean village to an uber pious Jewish father. Unfortunately, Jacob was a young free-thinker. First, his father punished him for this by making him wed at a young age. (Twice!) When that didn't work, his father then exiled him from his family for his sins. After moving to Vienna and becoming an oculist, he met a young Dr. Sigmund Freud and Freud's patient, Emma Eckstein. Dr. Freud's diagnosis of Emma was hysteria, but it was a highly unusual case, as the reader soon finds out. (Saying anymore would reveal spoilers).
In Book 2, the longest of the three (hang in there, reader!), Dr. Sammelsohn befriends the inventor of the Esperanto universal language, and among other adventures, suffers through a long, tedious committee meeting regarding universal language adoptions and reforms. In Book 3, World War I comes and goes and World War II begins and Dr. Sammelsohn finds himself a Jew in a Warsaw ghetto. But the best, and laugh-out-loud funniest, part of the book is the last 25 pages as Jacob tours Heaven! (Chef's kiss!)
My edition was an advanced reading copy that had a few grammatical and formatting errors, but did not detract from the story.
May 29, 2014
Two things to note:
a) this sat on my shelf for a long time before I read it, because it's big (physically thick, that is) and I wasn't sure I could handle it.
b) it was way better than I expected.
Look, long novels have a few things about them: one is that they tend to start reeeeaallll slow. They may turn out to be incredible, but sometimes it takes so long to get going, I can, I admit, lose interest. For that reason, i sort of held off on this book for awhile. But it starts at a pretty solid clip, keep it (mostly) throughout, and as the author weaves together different times periods with a thread I was not expecting, he ties together things I would not have connected in a way that makes sense.
Definitely more enjoyable than his previous book (The English Disease), clearly the product of some pretty hardcore historical research, woven with Jewish magical realism...a very solid read. Knocked this bad boy out basically on a long cross country flight (okay, with layover), and you probably can do. Absolutely worth it.
a) this sat on my shelf for a long time before I read it, because it's big (physically thick, that is) and I wasn't sure I could handle it.
b) it was way better than I expected.
Look, long novels have a few things about them: one is that they tend to start reeeeaallll slow. They may turn out to be incredible, but sometimes it takes so long to get going, I can, I admit, lose interest. For that reason, i sort of held off on this book for awhile. But it starts at a pretty solid clip, keep it (mostly) throughout, and as the author weaves together different times periods with a thread I was not expecting, he ties together things I would not have connected in a way that makes sense.
Definitely more enjoyable than his previous book (The English Disease), clearly the product of some pretty hardcore historical research, woven with Jewish magical realism...a very solid read. Knocked this bad boy out basically on a long cross country flight (okay, with layover), and you probably can do. Absolutely worth it.
May 30, 2015
Another writer at a writing residency recommend this. Wow, this is truly an amazing book. Very clever and funny and extremely intelligent. The narrator is inserted into a story about Freud and some other famous intellectuals in early 20th century Vienna, L.L. Zamenhof, the inventor of Esperanto, intellectual life in Paris, and the Warsaw ghetto during the worst of World War II.
There is a wonderful and funny characterization of Freud as narcissistic and pompous, but also realistic-seeming as the narrator falls in love with one of his patients with hysteria. Then they both get involved with a dybbuk (ghost who inhabits a live body,) and the narrator’s deceased wife, and it’s fun to see the juxtaposition of Freudian analysis of hysteria with Yiddish folk tales about dybbuks. The wildly imaginative plot goes on and six different languages are employed.
AND I got the 600+ page hardcover edition for $.01 online. Really a shame, though, to think that this stellar book just died in the water. A telling comment about publishing these days...
There is a wonderful and funny characterization of Freud as narcissistic and pompous, but also realistic-seeming as the narrator falls in love with one of his patients with hysteria. Then they both get involved with a dybbuk (ghost who inhabits a live body,) and the narrator’s deceased wife, and it’s fun to see the juxtaposition of Freudian analysis of hysteria with Yiddish folk tales about dybbuks. The wildly imaginative plot goes on and six different languages are employed.
AND I got the 600+ page hardcover edition for $.01 online. Really a shame, though, to think that this stellar book just died in the water. A telling comment about publishing these days...
November 15, 2016
I read this book mainly because I heard that Esperanto was part of the plot. In that sense, I wasn't disappointed, there is a good deal of Esperanto in the book (although I should point out that the Ido split didn't kill the language, it's still as active today).
A major problem I have with the book is that the narrator and main character is incredibly dull. He has absolutely no personality, characteristics, hobbies or friends. He doesn't really do or say anything. He spends most of the book helplessly letting things happen to him or listening to other people talk.
The plot is decent until about half way through the book when the author ran out of ideas and didn't know what to do next. From then on the plot grinds to a halt and the book lacks direction.
The third section of the book is an absolute disaster. The main character does a lot of things without any reason and it all seemed pointless. The setting was very contrived and didn't feel real at all. The author manages to make Jewish life under the Nazis seem boring. The ending was an absolute fiasco.
A major problem I have with the book is that the narrator and main character is incredibly dull. He has absolutely no personality, characteristics, hobbies or friends. He doesn't really do or say anything. He spends most of the book helplessly letting things happen to him or listening to other people talk.
The plot is decent until about half way through the book when the author ran out of ideas and didn't know what to do next. From then on the plot grinds to a halt and the book lacks direction.
The third section of the book is an absolute disaster. The main character does a lot of things without any reason and it all seemed pointless. The setting was very contrived and didn't feel real at all. The author manages to make Jewish life under the Nazis seem boring. The ending was an absolute fiasco.
September 19, 2011
I quite like the authors idea of following love through the "re-incarnated" souls of two "soul mates". It was interesting setting the story in Vienna with Dr Freud. Who would have thought that Dr Freud was such a cocaine head and general chop ;) However, as I read further into the book, the author seems to be getting a tad carried away, and I must confess he lost me a bit. I suppose it is not easy to conclude a book with this story line anyway, but when the souls started traveling through the different Jewish heavens and then back to earth etc, I felt the author became a little self indulgent......and even though it was obviously a book of fiction it headed off too much in the direction of science fiction of which I am not a big fan. (the last third of the book gets a 1 star from me, but the beginning a 3 or 4 - perhaps 3 stars is too generous...)
September 8, 2013
Written in a leisurely, slightly old-fashioned style according well with the time period, the plot of A Curable Romantic meanders its way
through a surprisingly large amount of material.
Can you imagine what a novel, set mostly in the early part of the last century, incorporates re-incarnation, early psychoanalysis, The birth and death of Esperanto, at least seven languages, Freud himself, a couple of angels, God's antechamber, God's "major-domo" would read like? Whatever you may imagine, Skibell carries this off with extraordinary ease and aplomb.
Despite its slow pace, A Curable Romantic mostly kept my unwavering attention although I think it would have benefited from a tiny bit of judicious pruning here and there.
A thoroughly entertaining read leaving me wanting to explore this writer's work further.
through a surprisingly large amount of material.
Can you imagine what a novel, set mostly in the early part of the last century, incorporates re-incarnation, early psychoanalysis, The birth and death of Esperanto, at least seven languages, Freud himself, a couple of angels, God's antechamber, God's "major-domo" would read like? Whatever you may imagine, Skibell carries this off with extraordinary ease and aplomb.
Despite its slow pace, A Curable Romantic mostly kept my unwavering attention although I think it would have benefited from a tiny bit of judicious pruning here and there.
A thoroughly entertaining read leaving me wanting to explore this writer's work further.
February 6, 2016
This book really had a good premise, but was very disappointingly delivered. Dr. Sammelsohn falls in love immediately with a woman he sees in the theatre. He pursues her, only to find in psychotherapy sessions that the woman is possessed by the spirit of his dead wife. The idea of two people meeting throughout the ages in reincarnated bodies and different settings is a wonderful idea, but the idea just fizzles out after the first section of the book. Then it just turns to another love affair Dr. Sammelsohn has and finally to the war, where his reincarnated lover saves him from the Nazis. The author repeatedly refers to Dr. Sammelsohn being a Jew, but never really says why it's important to the story, except in the end when the Nazi take over Poland. Didn't quite get the book, I guess.
October 30, 2014
I finished this book last week and can't stop thinking about it. The whole time I was reading it, I kept thinking "this is more and more insane" - but the funny thing about it with a little distance is that it's a perfectly "typical" narrator - who is not particularly likable or unlikable - going through actual history of the 17th Century, from Vienna to Warsaw, and his typicality highlights the surrounding insanity.
Okay, there's also a crazy love story I don't want to spoil that's anything BUT typical, but... that's the spice.
I thought this book was going to be funny. It's clever, and I laughed regularly, and it's probably an actual comedy, but don't read this book for the humor. Read it for perspective on humanity. Just... read it.
Okay, there's also a crazy love story I don't want to spoil that's anything BUT typical, but... that's the spice.
I thought this book was going to be funny. It's clever, and I laughed regularly, and it's probably an actual comedy, but don't read this book for the humor. Read it for perspective on humanity. Just... read it.
August 21, 2015
An interesting but slightly annoying meditation on being a sexually repressed jew with daddy issues. The best part is the quirky portrayal of three famous men of the late 19th and early 20th century who become central to the protagonist's life. Clever story. Not particularly emotionally satisfying. The protagonist never matures in his sexual obsessions for women (who may or may not be the same woman reincarnated) or his relationship to great men with odd beliefs.Perhaps that's the point. He's a vehicle for observing them. The insider look at extreme jewish orthodoxy was fascinating, though. Like the narrator's father, who spoke only by quoting scripture. And the supernatural aspects of the tale seemed to fit right in with the protagonist's eternal uncertainty about faith and rationality.
January 15, 2011
I did not like this book. I can't give it one star, however, because there were some very interesting historical characters in it: Freud and Zamenhoff who created Esperanto (which I never even knew existed). I drifted in and out of like with the protagonist who meets these historical figures at the beginning of the 20th century. The writing was confusing and the story was bizarre and uneven. But the real question I am left with is this: why did I read over 500 pages of a book I really disliked? Can someone please explain this to me??? I attempted to stop reading a couple of times but I still coninuted. Maybe I just wanted to know how this crazy story ended? Well, I'm glad its over!
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