These stories are like poetry of family history. Singer is well named, for he sings of the songs of people's souls.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to him when I was a young adult, and open to the flavors and sounds of other cultures. I fell madly in love with his narratives.

Isaac Bashevis Singer should be mandatory reading for high school students. ( )

Started reading Singer only recently and am completely blown away. Some Nobel prize winners get legitimized by the prize while others legitimize the prize. Singer is in the latter category. Before coming to Singer, I had read a ton of Cormac McCarthy. I think there are parallels between the two. Both are obsessed with suffering and loss and move seamlessly from gritty realism to philosophy and allegory. With both, the reader is liable to feel intimidated, to feel as if he or she is not on the proper spiritual or intellectual stage to truly comprehend the stories. And that is fine with Singer and McCarthy. I think that is a fair definition of genius for genius cannot exist without integrity. ( )

Note to self - listened to Disguise ( )

I sampled 13 of these stories from the breadth of Singer's career and will definitely come back for the rest. All of the stories are tightly focused around a singular worldview (especially the early ones set in Frampol), but that doesn't make any of them predictable. There is much to discover here about Yiddish culture, the immigrant experience, and magic. ( )

As you read the stories, you enter his world. Slowly and first, then you're there: The old folk tales, and then life in the modern world: And how the folk tales cast a shadow on the modern world. Beautiful stories, beautiful endings.