...Singer explores not only human loneliness but also the human comedy in his short works..the theme of course centers around love, a love that transports you far away, washing you with a tide of emotions...though these tales drawn from the old traditionary school of thought, celebrate the dignity, mastery and unexpected joy of living with moreart and fervor than any other writer...

This classic collection explores the varieties of wisdom gained with age and especially those that teach us how to love....the love that ages and matures...just like old wine tasting even better day by day, year after year and tear after tear...these are tales of curious marriages, of divorces, of love curses, bravery and loneliness...

If I was stranded on a deserted island and somehow was given the choice of three books that I could have with me, I think I would pick the Bible, "The Complete Plays of Shakespeare" and "The Collected Short Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer". This collection is an excellent example of the quality and diversity of Singer's talent. There are stories from the present and from the past all containing marvelous characters that amuze, intrigue, and/or mystify the reader. Among the best are "The Admirer", "Sabbath in Portugal", "Three Encounters", "The Adventure", and "Passios". "The Admirer" is a tale about a meeting with a fan of his that turns into a comical nightmare. "Sabbath in Portugal" is a tale of a lonely visit to an alien country where the author encounters a faith that survived the inquisition and an encounter with someone he thought was lost forever. "Three Encounters" is the tale of a young man's innocent suggestion to a young bride and the sucessive corruption that results. "The Adventure" tells of an unusual request and the challenge of if and how to respond. Finally, "Passions" tells of the ability of a simple man to overcome the impossible with the proper amount of focussed passion. All the stories are worth reading. The world's greatest short story writer has produced another example of why he is so revered.

If your children love either Isaac Singer or Chelm, look no further than these seven tales. They will treasure the book always, because, as Singer noted in the Foreword to this 1966 volume, "In stories time does not vanish. Neither do men and animals. For the writer and his readers the creatures go on living forever. What happened a long time ago is still present." Singer dedicated the stories to "children who had no chance to grow up because of stupid wars and cruel persecutions" and hoped readers would grow into men and women who "love not only their own children but all good children everywhere." It's hard to imagine otherwise.

The book opens with a tale called "Fool's Paradise," in which Atzel, the son of Kadish grew up with an unheard of disease: He thought himself dead. Lazy by nature, he did nothing at all. His parents tried everything, and finally consulted Dr. Yoetz. After telling his parents to prepare a darkened room to look like paradise, with white satin sheets, the good physician came to examine the young man and pronounced him "dead." Delighted with this outcome, Atzel regained his appetite and energy, and remained animated until the next day. When exactly the same food was brought to him a winged angel told him, "In paradise, my lord, one always eats the same food." On asking the time of day, he was told "In paradise there is neither day nor night."

Atzel could not meet with anyone, do anything, see his parents or his beloved, whom he was told was mourning him but would meet another young man and marry him instead. "That's how it is with the living." After eight days, Atzel began to see the value of living. He would rather chop wood and carry stones than stay in paradise, and would rather kill himself than stay there forever. At that point, Dr. Yoetz told Atzel he was not dead after all. Upon returning to the land of the living, Atzel married his beloved and became one of the most industrious and productive souls in the region. (Many souls now seeking paradise could benefit from this story.)

Not all Singer's fools lived in paradise. Some lived in Chelm, the village of idiots young and old. When it snowed on Hanukkah once, all of Chelm glittered like a silver tablecloth. The moon shone; the stars twinkled; the snow shimmered like pearls and diamonds. And the Elders of Chelm believed that a treasure had fallen from the sky. Rather than trample it, they planned to send a messenger to all the houses to tell the people to stay indoors until the treasure could be harvested. But how could the messenger tell them without himself destroying their riches? Suffice it to say the Chelmnicks ended no richer than they began, but for the laughter they provided to outsiders peering in through Singer's window.

My favorite story, though, is not funny at all. In Zlateh the Goat, the last and title tale, Rueven instructed his son Aaron to take his pet to the butcher to pay for the struggling family's Hanukkah celebrations. Heartbroken, the boy nevertheless heeded his father and set out, only to be overtaken by a snowstorm. I cannot tell what happened, except to say that the tale warms hearts to the core. Alyssa A. Lappen

This is a very short novel about a holocaust survivor who later moves to America and becomes a successful businessman. Eventually he becomes disgusted with his immoral lifestyle. He decides to get away from immoral influences by moving to Israel. Once he is there, he finds that there are immoral people everywhere, even in the Holy Land. Throughout the book he struggles with a little voice that tells him not to worry about morals and to just have fun no matter what. When he finally does meet some moral people in Israel he decides to stay there and commit his life to being a good person. This is a book that most people can relate to. We struggle to be good and often blame our immoral actions on the bad influences of others. There is probably not one person in the world who is not in need of some improvement, so I recommend this book to everyone.

"The Penitent," a novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, tells the story of a Jewish man named Joseph Shapiro. Joseph flees Poland during the era of Nazi aggression. He comes to America but eventually embarks on a spiritual journey that brings him to Israel. This is a relatively short book (117 pages in a paperback edition).

"The Penitent" is masterfully written by Singer. The book actually consists of one story "nested" within another; the "frame" story is told by a first-person narrator, a writer who meets Joseph in Israel at the Wailing Wall. This brief frame story leads into the main part of the book: Joseph's first-person narration as told to this frame narrator. Thus the book could be read as an extended character study.

Joseph turns from worldliness to orthodox Judaism, and "The Penitent" is essentially the story of this spiritual journey. Joseph's story is fascinating. He is a very opinionated narrator, and although you may disagree with many of his declarations, I found his voice to be consistently compelling. In his story he touches on many significant issues: sexual and ideological temptation, the complex linguistic world of the Jewish people, the relationship of the Jewish Bible to rabbinical writings, vegetarianism, etc. The shadow of the Holocaust is a key theme in Joseph's story.

Throughout the book Joseph is a harsh critic of the modern world, especially of its literature and sexual values. Joseph has constant arguments with "the Evil One" throughout the book. Are these actual conversations with a demonic being, or just representations of Joseph's inner psychological state? Whichever they are, this device is used brilliantly by Singer. "The Penitent" is a richly peopled, remarkable work of fiction.

Isaac Bashevis Singer's The Penitent is a captivating novel of lust, luxury and eventually Jewish orthodoxy. It begins with a pious man by the name of Joseph Shapiro meeting up with his long time favorite author Isaac. After meeting, the two begin talking and Joseph goes into detail about his metamorphosis from an immoral sinner to a pious Jew. Singer's writing style is one of elaborate detail and heartfelt emotion. Some of his major themes in the novel are suicide, the purpose of life, sexism (specifically the role of women) and mainly Jewishness. Being a Jewish man, Singer's knowledge of the religion is greatly reflected in this novel surrounded by debauchery and sinicism. Anyone questioning his faith or in need of entertainment should read this book.

This novel is based on the historical occurrence of the appearance of the false messiah Sabbath Zevi and the mass following he generated .While the bare facts of the delusion may be true , I believe that the fleshing out of the characters, their thoughts and behaviour are a misrepresentation .
'Satan in Goray' is set in the mid Seventeenth Century , and yet strongly reflects the Twentieth , especially drawing on I.B. Singer's life and milieu .
It would be useful to read his autobiographical 'Love in Exile' together with the novel
to see that Isaac Bashevis Singer had an axe to grind .
Singer's parents were pious , learned Jews , and young Isaac defected from the
essence of his forbears' religion , as did many of his peers , while retaining
the peripheral cultural artifacts and images which preoccupied his writings.
This loss of faith prejudiced him and thus in 'Satan in Goray' he depicts his
ancestors as superstitious , foolish to the degree of lunacy , cruel and violent , filthy and uncouth, as well as emotionally and sexually out of control . The wisdom , kindness and beauty of his heritage are not shown in the novel which is a caricature of the worst character traits in man .I refuse to believe the people of the shtetl were anything like that ! The few wise scholars in the book are just mentioned as such but do not flourish nor triumph .They appear as absolutely impotent and irrelevant .
In the battle between good and evil , the evil is not defeated , it just collapses .The sect self destructs when Shabbatai converts to Islam .
Singer plugs his vegetarianism in a bloody depiction of ritual slaughter as a filthy orgy of violence . He depicts Jewish parenting as ruthlessly cruel beyond plain child abuse . Rechele's upbringing is just unbelievably nightmarishly cruel ! Jewish parenting is not like that !
Some may take pride in the award of a Nobel prize to Singer , but perhaps the Nobel
committee was being ideological, by rewarding and promoting the denigration of Jewry as well as the rejection of core Jewish values .

The novel is definitely not realistic fiction but grotesque fantasy and I suppose that , if
it is written as a work of art in that genre of horror fiction then as a work of art , whatever art is , it might be acceptable to some. The Shabbetai Tzvi phenomenon in the novel may also be read as metaphor for modern "messianic" movements e.g. Bolshevism or Stalinism which were part of Singer's milieu as described in his autobiography , and these certainly did take hold in a violent excessive fashion .

When times are desperate as they have been in many eras and many places, people tend to resort to desperate measures. They cast their lot with prophets, dreamers, and seers who foretell a bright future--the coming of the millenium, it is often called----when all problems shall be solved, the rough made plain, the poor made rich, and sick shall be healed. Movements develop. They may die away in time or they may thrive and create great civilizations. Western civilization, after all, is based on one such movement. We generally refer to these movements as "cults", unless of course they are successful. In many, but not all, millenial movements, people anticipate the immanent arrival of the New Age so strongly that they throw away their possessions and engage in dissolute behavior: singing, dancing, drinking, engaging in previously-forbidden sex, and so on. Sometimes the "pure" remove themselves to isolated spots to await the end of the world or the Great Change, in extreme cases, they may even commit suicide. Anthropologists have studied many such groups or religions; others are found in history books or newspapers. Our times are not devoid of such groups: remember Jonestown, remember the Branch Davidians, remember that group that committed suicide in California. China (the Taiping), Brazil (Antonio Conselheiro),, Papua New Guinea (the cargo cults), Africa (many studies), Burma, Europe---the list is nearly endless. The Jews have not been immune either. In the 1660s the famous "false Messiah" arose in Turkey, claiming to be ready to lead the Jews to Judgement Day and a new era. Throughout eastern Europe hope sprang up, especially in the Polish-Ukrainian regions devasted by the murderous Bogdan Chmielnitski not long before.

Written as a novel, with lively, colorful characters, Singer describes perfectly the course of such a millenial movement in Goray, an isolated Polish village. Whether you are interested in literature or anthropology, this is a description you cannot afford to miss. We follow the rise and fall of a local cult leader, a prophetess, and the feverish hopes of the Jews, longing for deliverance from "singing King Alpha's song in a strange land". Amidst strange marriages, the breaking of all the strict laws of kashrut, and the wild visions of prophecy, Goray's hopes soar and crash. If you think that the rise of post-Holocaust, post-pogrom Israel is just politics and has nothing to do with any sort of millenarianism, then you should read this wonderful book and reconsider. Powerful language, dark, dreadful images full of demons and damnation only possible from a master like Singer show the strength of the ancient dream of Israel. The tragedy is, of course, that in modern times the dream was realized at somebody else's expense. Reading Abdelrahman Munif's "Cities of Salt", in conjunction with Singer's book would not be a bad idea. It illustrates the world on which such dreams impacted. SATAN IN GORAY is a wonderful book of literature, anthropology, and history from which great understanding may flow. The world needs this understanding.

Consider that I.B. Singer wrote Satan in Goray at the age of 26 or so, and the impressiveness of this work becomes all the more clear. Few people of that age, or any age could evoke an historical era with such force or create a fractured narrative of such power. The world of religious conflict, superstition, and messianiac hysteria is Singer's main interest, subjects he would pursue for the rest of his life. Satan in Goray is a strong beginning, a prophetic book (written in the early 1930's) of a trapped people on the edge of a disaster.

The book takes place as the Jews of Gory attempt to recover from the Chelmelnicki massacres of the 1640's (the worst disaster for the Jews between the Crusades and the Holocaust). The Jews of Poland believe that, as Christian would say, the End Times are here, and expect the messiah to arrive. Shabbati Shevi appears on the scene, claiming to be the messiah. Many Jews fall under his sway, but the Rabbi of Goray resists and this further wracks the town. As these political and social disasters are played out, a young orphan, Rechele, who is insane, becomes the center of interest of the town, as she is unmarried. When a holy man, Itche Mates, arrives in Goray, he marries the unfortuate Rechele, who proceeds to be posessed by Satan and do things that make Linda Blair in the Excorsist look amateur.

The novel itself has some problems; it's birth as a serial leaves it episodic. One has the sense of threads stopping and starting without reason, and there really is not what could be called a plot. However, Singer's rich language, his pinpoint descriptions of people, places, and religious factions are stunning. Reading his work is an education.

Satan in Goray is a look into the hearts of Polish Jews right before World War II. The sense of helpless claustrophobia is appalling, the whiff of death overwhelming here. Satan was not just in Goray, and Singer knew it.

Let me begin by saying that I have never read anything by I. B. Singer that I thought was a waste of time. This man is incredible with the stories he writes and the style he writes it in. What is even more amazing is that Singer always maintained that his stories lost about 40% of their literary value in translation. As great as I think he is, I apparently will never appreciate how great he really is because I can't read Yiddish. That said, I don't recommend this book for an introduction to the author. It is very good but it is not one of his better collections of short stories. I'd actually rate it a 3.5 on this scale but, with Singer, you always round up. For a good introduction to the author I would recomend "Passions".

The stories I did enjoy the most were certainly worth the price of admission. Those stories would include the title story. The last line is terrific but not if you hadn't read the story first. I enjoyed "The Key" in which a lonely widow discovers that she is surrounded by friends that she never before realized. "The Cafeteria" is the type of love story that Singer writes when he is one of the lovers. True romance seems to only happen to others in his stories. "The Chimney Sweep" is a nice little story about what a knock on the head can do for a fellow. "Schlomele" is a story about the sort of zany characters the author seemed to find so easily in this country. "The Colony" is a sort of haunting story about a visit to Argentina. It seems like all of his short story collections have a story about a visit to Argentina. They seem to always be very good stories, too. "The Wager" is the story of the tragic outcome of a practical joke gone bad. "The Son" is a short but touching tale of a father and son reunion in a case where they were separated near birth and rejoined as grown and near-grown men.

There were many other stories but, as I looked back over them, they didn't seem as memorable as most of Singer's stories I've read in the past. I started out by writing that you can't go wrong reading Isaac B. Singer. I'll close by saying the same thing but I suggest you introduce yourself to him with a different book. I wouldn't want you to get the wrong impression.

It is a mystery to me why these books are all going out of print. Singer is one of the great 20c masters of the short story. I would characterise them as genius: they evoke lives in the deepest sense, offering a glimpse of an utterly alien existence.

I was attracted by the title, and delightfully surpirsed at the power of the writing, including stories of neglected sholars, demons and harmless goblins, and the way of life of pre-WWII Poland. Every story is superbly crafted.

Warmly recommended. This writer deserves to be read.

A number of writers have written about the experience of being a starving artist. Off the top of my head, I can think of William Saroyan, George Orwell and Jack London. Back when I was a starving artist, I read them all. It was research. I had to know how to live, and what not to do. It was serious business.

I came upon Hunger by Hamsun in the stacks of the library where I went to art school. I loved the book because I was living it. I was so used to being hungry that I lived in a continual state of dizziness and visions. People were always asking me if I was anorexic but the truth was the work I found just didn't pay me enough to pay for rent, transportation, and food. The rent and transportation were constants, so I skimped on the food.

What struck me when I was reading all these writers -- Hamsun included -- is that these poverty-stricken writers were all eating steak. When they ate, they ate steak. So for them, either they could eat steak, or they couldn't eat at all.

And most of them only ate in restaurants. Hamsun's character only ate in restaurants. Unbelievable, his hair is falling out because he is starving, and his idea of a meal is eating steak in a restaurant.

What the hell kind of survival skill is this?

Hunger taught me to become a vegetarian and to learn to cook. I could live off a $.79 bag of lentils for two weeks. I lived off a Halloween pumpkin for another two weeks. When I was flush, dinner was a yam. I ate the parts of vegetables other people throw out. When you're hungry, you learn to be inventive. You learn to make do. You learn humility and patience and resourcefulness. You learn to put up with things that you would consider a real drag or beneath you when you were well-fed.

This is not something you see in the books. These guys are dying because they don't learn from their poverty. They're inflexible; they're dying because they can only feed themselves with their art, they can't take day jobs, they can't invent a way to make art and still eat.

Hamsun's book is a morality tale about inflexibility. I don't think he means it as that, but it's what I learned from it. Hamsun's Hunger changed my life. It taught me, you have to learn to invent, or you'll die. And learning to invent is what being an artist is all about.

Here we find the birth of the anti-hero -- Hamsun's protaganist of "Hunger" -- a brilliant and scarcely recognized book. But make no mistake, he is not the anti-hero proudly glorifying his underdog status in the world as we've seen repeatedly throughout the last two centuries. He is not a martyr for the misunderstood eccentric artists of the world. He does not suffer over the far reaching philosophical questions of existence itself. He simply exists in a world that we can relate to. I would contend that men like this really exist; men like Raskolnikov do not. While Dostoevsky feeds on the desire of his reader to project an answer, Hamsun merely mirrors his own experience with honesty and innocence. I am not debating the merit of Dost. at all (he is the superior writer), but expanding upon the hidden attachement we have to characters like these. It's just not an issue for the "Hunger's" protaganist. Here is a man with gifted intelligence for reasoning and the ability to fully comprehend the life he *must* live, but is too shy and bashful to dramatize and romanticize it. He is completely human, living in a world entirely of himself. It is clear that he could make friends and earn a good wage if he chose to. But he does not, not out of the vile contempt for man's vices, but on his own acceptance that this is the man he is. Guilt is the essential problem, not hunger. At over a century old, the novel is a refreshing pleasure to read. The prose is quick without being terse. It is essential reading for anyone interested in a segway into the modernist and avant-garde movement. Not for what Hamsun represents, but for what he doesn't.

exciting, youthful, rebellious - these are the adjectives swimming around in my head when i think of Hunger. If you're a disaffected teenager, read this as a tonic - there is hope, others have been more disaffected before. If you're a disaffected parent, read this as a tonic too - there is hope, others have been more disaffected than your wayward kid.

Underneath the irresistible depression cycle of the hero here is a seriously unnerving compulsion to self-harm and mental instability. It is a novel that demonstrates an incredible ability on the part of the author to invent an original literary device - the loner monologue in this case - and carry it through with utter confidence. Hunger is a very selfish book. It obsesses about its narrator. It is no great piece of literature-as-therapy. It offers no answers to big life questions for the hungry reader, in fact, it is more likely to make you ask questions: about the mind, the "system", capitalism, social boundaries and taboos and, lastly, creativity. This is a debut to be reckoned with.

The novel was excellent, the plot and the conflicts that aroused in Aaron Greidinger's life were well written and very interesting. Only fault i found was after around page 200 or so after his marriage, the book begins to get closer and closer to being encapsulated by boredom. I found it hard to read after page 200, i kept having to read in intervals, because the book would lose my attention so quickly. Unfortunately minutely too lengthy, the overall perspective of the novel was excellent.

"Shosha" is the story of a young writer's (Aaron Greidinger) committed love for a girl by the name of Shosha, from whom he falls in love at the age of seven. Althoug Shosha is a backward girl, intellectually below the level of the writer, he is unable to disregard her and although pursued by a number of other women, Greindinger returns to Shosha. It parallels his struggle to uproot himself from a society that is disrupted and doomed to die. To a great extent it is autobiographical, reflecting the conflict between communist political ideas and the laws of the Torah, Poland's ghetto life in the 30's, and the author's early struggle as a writer. Despite its simplicity in narration, the story is powerful, with a number of strong characters, with reversal of plots, reminding the fact that the story was developed to be published as journalist serial. As characteristic in all of Singer's writing deep philosophical questions are brought up, adding spice to a turbulent plot by itself reflecting an era of dramatic changes.

In Shosha Singer reminds us to focus on the journey as human beings rather than on any specific destination. Shosha, as a love story, asks us to look at what it means to be a living, thinking, feeling being even as the world falls inexorably into a chaos where definitions of normalcy no longer make sense. Even as Hitler, the Nazis, the Communists and, indeed, much of an uncaring western world threatened the continued existence of Eastern European Jews our cast of characters persisted in their exploration of the nature of God and man. While emmeshed in their rituals of relationship and love, they seek to make sense of the perils of day to day existence in an anti-Semetic world.

This is a book that allows the reader to look at the world as it was in the late thirties and forties, looking outward from the hearts and minds of a thriving Jewish community soon to be destroyed. We see what the consequences were for people who chose for centuries to not lift up the sword. Past, present and future seem to exist simultaneously. Spiritual and intellectual exploration thrive even in the face of personal and cultural annihalation. There is a somwhat distant and dreamlike quality to the life, loves and adventures of Singer's characters, but it fits the events as they unfold. And, while the story ends with the birth of Israel and new beginnings for survivors of the holocaust, we are reminded that what was continues to live only as long as those who were there are alive to relate the facts, to tell their stories. We are cautioned that when individual and collective realities that surround evil, suffering and loss are lost the universe becomes ever more flawed. This is a tale of evil and catastrophe, as well as a tale of hopefulness and wonder and resiliance of the human spirit.

This book sat on my shelf unread for twenty years. I am glad that I read it now, given the almost surreal times in which we are living. Singer's tale of love and survival of the human spirt is as relevant now as it was when it was written. It is not an easy book to read, but one well worth reading.

A young man, who aspires to become a writer in Warsaw in 1922 gets caught up in issues of life, love, family, and politics. The times are chaotic and the future is uncertain. Social structures are changing, religon is under assault, and communism is on the rise.

This is the background for this novel by nobel prize winner Isaac B. Singer. This largly autobiograpichal story paints a picture of a culture and time lost in the ashes of history. His memories are touching and deftly written. A good read for any who are interested in this tremendous author.

David Bendiger is a penniless young man, willing to make a name for himself as a writer in Warsaw. But 1922 is a time of turmoil, war, anti-Semitism, the rise of communism, all of which deeply affecting a young generation that cannot find its place in society. More so for the Jewish community, torn itself between tradition and the new rationalism. David is a puppet in a world of chaos, who gets himself carried and involved in the lives of three women, each one of them with their own dilemma in life. Like in all his other works, I.B.Singer masters his depiction of human despair, love, greatness, and despicable existence.

David Bendiger is at a crossroad in his life. He is 18-1/2 and like his brother, Ahron, he aspires to be a writer. David also has the opportunity to obtain a certificate of passage to Palestine, a British protectorate in 1922. The only catch is that if he had a wife entry into Palestine would be that much easier. David enters into a fictitious marriage with Minna, a woman from a well-to-do Jewish family living in Warsaw. Minna plans to reunite with her adored fiance in Palestine and then dissolve her union with David. Needless to say problems ensue.

_The Certificate_ is a splendid and engrossing story full of unexpected plot turns. It captures that moment in a young man's life when he is just becoming an adult and must make important decisions that will affect the rest of his life. In David's case he chooses to begin his writing career by endeavoring to have some of his writings published. Newly discovering women, he ponders about the kind of woman he will eventually marry. The son of an orthodox rabbi, David also faces a challenge to his Judaism and his belief in God when he meets two Communist women at a rooming house, as well as from Minna, a self-denying Jew. Even his beliefs and his value system, much of these derived from Spinoza, are shaken. Whether David finds a new life in Palestine or takes an altogether different road may be discovered by reading this small, but important and engrossing work in the I.B. Singer canon.

This book is a compilation of 8 short stories, some based on traditional Jewish tales.
I'd give this book a 1 star rating out of five. Some of the stories are mildly interesting, but most of them are too old( take place in Middle Ages or before) for my liking. There isn't much description either, so you can't envision the picture in your mind the author wants you to. Some of the stories do not have a plot and those that do have unusual endings or don't provide a solution to the problem encountered in the story. I really cannot his book even got a slight chance at possibly maybe being a Newberry Medal nominee.

The funniest translated story in English is in this book. It's "Shrewd Todie and Lyzer the Miser," and it's about silver candlesticks that die after the birth of silver spoons. . .

"In our time, when literature is losing its address and the telling of stories is becoming a forgotten art, children are the best readers," Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote in the three paragraph preface to this 1968 volume. No question, children make fine listeners as well, particularly to these eight stories, which include several Singer originals, as well as some he heard from his mother, who heard them from her mother and grandmother.

Whatever their etymology, the stories all exhibit the themes that run throughout Singer's body of work--spirit, life and the supernatural--all encased in an amazingly agile use of language and humor that glints at the edges.

The book opens with the tale of "Shrewd Todie and Lyzer the Miser." The former had a wife Shaindel and seven children and never earned enough to feed them. He had such poor luck working at trades that he decided if he should make candles, the sun would never set. During an especially cold winter, Shaindel told Todie that if he could not get something to eat, she would go to the Rabbi and get a divorce. "And what will you do with it," he asked her. "Eat it?"

Lyzer, meanwhile, was so stingy that he let his wife bake bread only once every four weeks because stale bread was eaten more slowly than fresh. Rather than feed his goats, he let them feast on the thatched roofs of his neighbors. He preferred to eat his dry bread and borscht on a box so that his upholstered chairs would not wear out. He was not a man to make a loan, preferring to keep his money in his strongbox.

But one day Todie asked to Lyzer to borrow a silver spoon, giving his holy word that he would return it the next day. Not one to doubt holy words, Lyzer loaned the spoon and was pleased the next day when Todie returned it, plus a silver teaspoon, explaining that the spoon had given birth. As Todie was honest, he had to return both. He repeated the exercise twice more.

At last, he came to Lyzer to borrow some silver candlesticks for Shabbat. Lyzer gladly loaned them. Todie sold the candlesticks, bought his wife and seven children a feast and on Sunday, returned to Lyzer to say that his candlesticks had died. "You fool! How can candlesticks die," Lyzer screamed, dragging Todie to the Rabbi. "Did you expect candlesticks to give birth?" the Rabbi asked. "If you accept nonsense that brings you profit, you must also accept nonsense when it brings you loss."

Others stories are less silly. We meet Peziza the imp and her friend Tsirtsur the cricket, who lived together in an old stove and shared stories gay, devilish, frightening, and delightful for telling on long winter nights.
And Rabbi Leib, who managed to escape the evil works of Cunegunde, a witch whose son Bolvan robbed the merchants on the roads and hoarded his stolen goods in a cave rendered invisible by his mother's evil magic.

Still others are sillier. These, not surprisingly, hail from that province of silliness, Chelm. In Singer's Chelm, like all renditions of the town, lived fools. Here, even their monikers are funny--names like Gronam Ox, Dopey Lekisch, Zeinvel Ninny, Shmendrick Numskull and Feyvel Thickwit.

Now Shlemiel of the title also lived in Chelm, and was a businessman, such as it were. He married Mrs. Shlemiel, whose father gave him a dowry, with which he bought a goat in Lublin. But on the way home, he left the goat tethered to a tree while he went into an inn for some brandy, chopped liver and onions and a plate of chicken soup and noodles. The innkeeper (not surprisingly) switched his old blind billy goat for Shlemiel's milking goat. Lots more fun and some Chelmnick wisdom followed.

Each good tale wags another. Poverty grew larger, and naturally her feet grew larger too. Menash had a dream, and yes, Shlemiel finally went to Warsaw. To discover the sense in this nonsense, get this book, and share it with your children, be they young or old. Alyssa A. Lappen