This book is a welcome counterpoint to the Buber portrayal of Chasidim as saints or the Sholem Aleichem "Fiddler on the Roof" portrayal of European Jewry as a beautiful dead culture. In Yoshe Kalb, you run into the kind of corrupt Chasidim that you're sadly more likely to run into today. It's a brilliant portrayal of the often corrupt world of Chasidic dynasties where the leader knows little to nothing, the gabbai fights with the community and the women are stuck gossipping.

Nahum marries into an Hasidic dynasty due to the dynastic leader's eagerness to get married. A sensitive soul, he withdraws from the community except for an overwhelming lust that he feels for the chief rabbi's wife. Inadvertantly he sets in motion a chain of events that will destroy two dynasties and ends in one of the strangest trials in literature.

If you have only read Isaac Bashevis Singer, I urge you to seek out Israel Singer whereever you can find him.

Throughout East of Eden, John Steinbeck creates characters that are intriguing but pushes their personalities to the extreme ends of the spectrum of good and evil, making them difficult to relate to. Despite this, the characters' interactions and the history that they weave makes a compelling read. The parallel to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel is clear and at times, the familiar struggles of the "Cains" of the book provoke an empathy that the more angelic characters fail to stimulate. Even the evilest of characters such as Cathy, can be identified with more then the more moral characters, such as Adam, and, without a doubt, make for a more interesting read. Still, despite issues with characterization, the book pulls you into its world of interweaving stories and one quickly gets lost in trying to sort out the intricacies of relationships and human traits. Despite puzzling family history stories that will have you wondering about their exact significance to the rest of the book, the parallel themes of guilt and forgiveness tie the book together from beginning to end.

The bible is possibly one of the oldest and most read book in the world. There have been countless numbers of books based on biblical allusions, and "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck ranks top among the ones that I have read. The novel is a modernized re-creation of the story of Cain and Abel, two brothers in the Bible. Steinbeck incorporates the themes of this old biblical story to explore the truths of the human soul.
The story details the layers of good and evil through the characters and relationships of the families of Adam Trask and Samuel Hamilton. Adam Trask is a man who, blinded by illusions and a lost within himself, travels to California with his beautiful, but insidious, prostitute wife. There he meets Samuel Hamilton, a man poor in money but wealthy in life. The novel chronicles the development and relationships of the two men, their families, and the people surrounding their lives. It is an excellent novel, for Steinbeck effectively integrates his message throughout the book.
This is not a carefree, happy novel; rather, it is very dark as it explores the blacker areas of the human soul. Despite the foreboding mood and circumstances of the novel, Steinbeck manages to assert an uplifting message about the strength of human goodness and the perseverance of the human soul. Although the novel is fiction, he magnifies human nature through exaggerated circumstances. We may see a hidden part of ourselves, whether it is deceit on one occasion or jealousy on another, through the characters in the novel. We may also realize that the true message of the novel is indeed a very essential part of our lives. Perhaps this is why I feel that East of Eden is such an exceptional novel: not only does it bravely delve into an exploration of human morality, but it causes us to reflect on our own existence.

I enjoyed East of Eden immensely. Not only was it a very entertaining read, it was also very enriching. Like a previous reviewer mentioned, it is beneficial for the reader to be knowledgeable about the Bible (specifically the book of Genesis) prior to reading this book. It is the type of book that, after finishing it, will make you just sit and reflect. It offers a lot of insight on human nature, focusing on the potential for good and evil in everyone.

The struggle between good and evil is the dominant theme in this book. Steinbeck talks of the choice that everyone has to be either good (represented by the character Adam) or evil (represented by Cathy). The cast of characters is one of the best developed and most interesting I have ever encountered in a novel. All the characters have a purpose and bring the story to life. I highly recommend this book. You will not regret reading it.

I.J. Singer's work is a large-scale novel, with a multitude of characters and plots, the first attempt of a Yiddish writer to break away from the traditional short fiction depicting life in the shtelt. It is the result of exposure to European literature late in the 19th century, and reflects the dilemma of Jewish milieu torn apart from its traditional roots and having to face the rise of capitalism and communism. The main character, Max Ashkenazi is despicable by all means, obsessed by money and power, with a Machiavellian mind, and despite all his success has a sad end in life. Considering the conflicting time in which the novel takes place (first four decades of the 20th century), the main plot reflects the author's pessimistic and skeptic view of the place the Jew might have in modern society: be it amongst the capitalists or the communists, the Jew will always be misplaced and will never loose his stigma as scapegoat in times of trouble. The reader familiar with wthe work of Joshua's younger brother (Isaac Bashevis Singer) will certainly realize that the brothers share little in terms of literary production, each one with his own merits, albeit I.B. Singer surpasses in magnitude and depth.

The story begins at the beginning, prior to the nearly simultaneous birth of two brothers. Not quite Cain and Abel, the brothers grow apart and together, mixing people,places,positions. With verve and breadth, it tells how each individual becomes his own choices, with the help and the hindrance of the Jewish community in Poland in the early 20th century. What a story!

This book is an amazing piece of work. You can really see the struggles that the Jewish population in Poland had to endure in the decades before WWII. Some of the characters are truly detestable at, other times they are to be pitied. All in all, a very tragic book.