Me . . . and Jewish Writers

(Isaac Singer . . . before he croaked)


Reading Writers at Work, I was also taken in by the interview with Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Jewish writer whose work I began reading in the 1980s. Singer has always written in Yiddish, and finding translators for his work has always been a difficult task (how many read/write Yiddish anymore?)



Nevertheless, Singer has written some of the most widely-anthologized short stories to be found in college English surveys, and over the years, I've managed to shelve a number of his books, which I still read periodically.



Singer was also responsible for leading me to another Jewish writer, Bernard Malumud, who was, no doubt, one of the best American writers of the 20th century. One of my best memories of reading Malamud was when, on a flight from New York to Tel Aviv in 1991, I read the entirety of his novel, The Assistant, probably his best work, though not his Pulitzer or National Book award nominee.



I've got every one of Malumud's books at home, and I frequently take down his massive collected works and enter another world.



So . . . I know a bit about Jewish authors, I think . . . and I'm always on the lookout for others.