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A review by aliciagriggs
The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer by Isaac Bashevis Singer
3.0
I find short stories are great for bath time reading, and I really enjoyed getting through this collection of Isaac Bashevis Singer, though it took ages! The style of his writing made it, on the whole, difficult for me to read a lot of pages at one time. It isn't what I would consider an easy read; it's intellectual.
My favourite stories are 'Gimpel the Fool', 'The Slaughterer', 'Yentl the Yeshiva Boy', and 'The Letter Writer'.
'The Slaughterer' and 'The Letter Writer' are my two favourite because they focus on our mindset towards animal. Singer has an obvious fondness towards animals, and makes readers question their use and abuse of animals.
As he wrote in the 'The Letter Writer', "they have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures are merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for animals it is an eternal Treblinka. And yet man demands compassion from heaven."
Powerful words, and all too true.
My favourite stories are 'Gimpel the Fool', 'The Slaughterer', 'Yentl the Yeshiva Boy', and 'The Letter Writer'.
'The Slaughterer' and 'The Letter Writer' are my two favourite because they focus on our mindset towards animal. Singer has an obvious fondness towards animals, and makes readers question their use and abuse of animals.
As he wrote in the 'The Letter Writer', "they have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures are merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for animals it is an eternal Treblinka. And yet man demands compassion from heaven."
Powerful words, and all too true.