Spinoza of Market St

The title story of this work is one of the greatest of all Singer's stories. It tells of a poor aged sick student of philosophy who has dedicated his whole life to understanding Spinoza's thought, and his meeting with a poor, ugly , cleaning lady who comes to care for him in his illness. It is a story which in a way invokes great metaphysical dichotomies , between the Ideal and the Real, between Spirit and Matter(Body). But essentially it is one of the most moving love- stories ever written , a story which somehow finds the divine in the physical, but nonetheless as would be Singer's way, ironically. It's concluding line is one of the most striking I know in all of Literature. Read and enjoy.

- I refer to to the Spanish version of Brugera (?) I read this book some years ago with some caution, because I have known IBS as a novelist and somehow I had the expectation that the short stories might disappoint me. I was wrong, the prose is unique and the wisdom is there as everything the maestro writes. I feel compelled to learn yiddish right away.

Singer's father was a Hasid rabbi, and these stores are Jewish, but concern all mankind. These are stories with rich smells, and I can almost smell the chalah bread, and taste the kreplach and macaroons. Set in shtetl, (small communities of Eastern European Jews), there is a conflict of traditional culture and modern Jewish practice. Not only are there stories of golem, dybbuks, and demons, but even more earthy people as Dr. Fischelson who marries a woman known as Black Dobbe. There is a devil manipulating two perpetual liars, the flamboyant Glicka Genedel, and Reb Yomtom. There is a story of divine providence, where a beggar directs and aspiring chimney sweep, then down the road is paid back. These stories are sure to delight and surprise.

each short teaches a lesson in life and provides insight into our own lives. takes place for the most part in warsaw poland

First, I feel I should list the stories included in this little gem of a book:1)"The Spinoza of Market Street" 2)"The Black Wedding" 3)"A Tale of Two Liars" 4)"The Shadow of a Crib" 5)"Shiddah and Kuziba" 6)"Caricature" 7)"The Beggar Said So" 8)"The Man Who Came Back" 9)"A Piece of Advice" 10)"In the Poorhouse" 11)"The Destruction of Kreshev"With the exception of "Shiddah and Kuziba", all these stories are set in the same place: the Poland of centuries past, when large Jewish communities lived in the towns near the border with Russia (sometimes Russia itself controlled Poland). These stories involve love, treason, lies, evil, philosophy, lust, sex and much more. Though some stories are not very interesting, I wasn't disappointed by any of them. I will write a little about those I liked the most. "A Tale of Two Liars" has a plot whose simplicity reminds me of the best short narrations by J.L. Borges. Nothing is left at the end for the reader to wonder about: though its written in I.B.Singer's usual style (full of sometimes unneccesary, "by-the-way", details), the plot is so well made and (what else should I say?) complete, that it is as if it were a sphere that you grasp in its entierty with just one hand. "Shadow" is philosophical, with a lot of misanthropic and misogynous ramblings. Its ending, with the ghosts of the two main character coming back to haunt the town, has the same eerie tone as that of Joyce's "The Dead". "Caricature" stands up to its title: an old writer whose self-doubt makes him unable to clear his stinking and dusty room of useless outdated 'rubbish' (old magazines and letters that he has not bothered to open or read) or publish his long-awaited manuscript pokes fun at everything, including his wife, his own life and his obscure supporters. "The Destruction of Kreshev" reminds me of García Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude". It is simply a masterpiece that has to be read, a mix of science-fiction, horror and jewish folklore, a tale of how religious, supposedly upright intellectuals can end corrupting themselves by "too much thinking" and instronspection. "The Man Who Came Back", about a man who is revived only to be possesed by an evil spirit, and "A Piece of Advice", a kind of fable about pessimist, angry people acting as if they were the opposite of that, are also worth reading. "Kreshev" and "Spinoza" are the only stories that appear in "The Collecteded Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer".