A review by halschrieve
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories by Nathan Englander

3.0

This short story collection about Hasidim in the new world and survivors of pogroms in the old is interesting and ambitious, though I have my doubts about the way the author approaches female characters and I wish he had been slightly more ambitious in terms of bringing up questions about racism in America/identity differences between liberal Jewish communities and Hasidic sects and interactions between the two in Israel and America. There are points where it feels like he is exotifying the Orthodox characters in his stories, and I was disappointed that the story he set in Israel wasn't more invested in fleshing out the internal lives and politics of the characters. Englander's best stories are those set in Europe which evoke Zweig and Kafka and explore fantastic potential for survival in the context of historical antisemitism. His modern settings lack the immediacy and the political tone of the historical ones and center on interpersonal and social issues rather than questions of nationalism , fascism and religious identity--or it seems that way to me. I am curious to see where future collections of his go in this regard.