A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw (National Book Award Winner)

This is a book about Singer's early life and his family. This book is about Singer's childhood in Poland and draws on that experience. Singer was very interested in sharing his culture with people, a culture that time and WW II have largely erased. Singer was part of a Yiddish-speaking Jewish community that was existing as a subculture to the larger Polish community. Through gaining understanding and sympathy with other cultures and the people in them, we gain greater insight. Through reading writers like Singer, we gain the opportunity to explore cultures that we would never have the chance to otherwise.

I am Jewish, and I learned a lot from this book. I learned about life in Warsaw, and about the time period around World War I. It shows how that time compares to this, and how much more we have now than back then. Lots of people take electric lights for granted. This book shows what it was like to live through freezing weather, hunger, and stress about war. I don't exactly like autobiographies, but this one really, really hit the spot!

Singer just has it. These vignettes of his childhood do not have the emotional power of his greatest stories but they are rich with life, insight and humor. And somehow he tells stories even when he is making simple descriptions of his early life. This work too tells the pain and poverty of his childhood and the difficulty of his parents' lives. It is too a tribute to a world - gone .

This book is a very good read for anyone and everyone that likes to read about foreign culture-- or even if you don't! I usually detest biographies and book reports, but reading this book made it FUN!

Wonderfully written and translated collection of stories, for both adults and children. Written of a boy growing up in pre-war Poland, it gives a taste of the life of the time, and what it was like to be there, in an era that no longer exists. The stories are especially enjoyed by children, with characters that children can identify with. It is also a good introduction for children to life in the pre-Holocaust years. The book envelopes the reader in the warmth of the writers household, and you feel like you grew up there; you feel a personal rapport with the protagonist. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Jewish life in pre-war Europe, or those interested in furthering their children's background in Jewish life of the time. The classic stories for children in the second half of the book can be enjoyed by all.