Customer Reviews

A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To enjoy listening to stories told by grandfather, you don't necessarily have to be a child! As a matter of fact, it is a life virtue to enjoy these stories told by Isaac Bashevis Singer, regardless of age. They are set in the now vanished Hassidic community of pre-II World War, but their moral content transcends time and space, and although they are soaked in Jewishness they equally appeal to the open-minded reader. Beware that out of the seventeen tales in this editon, 14 are included in "My Father's Court," by the same author.

I am Jewish, and I learned a lot from this book. I learned about life in Warsaw, and about the time period around World War I. It shows how that time compares to this, and how much more we have now than back then. Lots of people take electric lights for granted. This book shows what it was like to live through freezing weather, hunger, and stress about war.

I don't exactly like autobiographies, but this one really, really hit the spot!

This is a book about Singer's early life and his family. This book is about Singer's childhood in Poland and draws on that experience. Singer was very interested in sharing his culture with people, a culture that time and WW II have largely erased. Singer was part of a Yiddish-speaking Jewish community that was existing as a subculture to the larger Polish community. Through gaining understanding and sympathy with other cultures and the people in them, we gain greater insight. Through reading writers like Singer, we gain the opportunity to explore cultures that we would never have the chance to otherwise.

Singer just has it. These vignettes of his childhood do not have the emotional power of his greatest stories but they are rich with life, insight and humor. And somehow he tells stories even when he is making simple descriptions of his early life. This work too tells the pain and poverty of his childhood and the difficulty of his parents' lives. It is too a tribute to a world - gone .

This book is a very good read for anyone and everyone that likes to read about foreign culture-- or even if you don't! I usually detest biographies and book reports, but reading this book made it FUN!

19 beautifully told anecdotes and rememberances of a childhood in the Jewish districts of Warsaw, of a young boy trying to make sense of the magical world around him against the background of the fast changing World of the twentieth century, where a world war, new realisms- political social and scientific- are sweeping away the old. And soon to come is the greatest horror of all that will end this world of Bashevis Singers childhood.
'A Day of Pleasure' won a national childrens book award, but it is a book for all ages to enjoy and gain the love of learning and literature that Bashevis Singer inspires. Beyond the religious culture and rites that differentiate people there is a universal rite of passage that all people go through growing up in a big strange world that Bashevis Singer captures perfectly. The book also has photographs taken by Roman Vishnial of the jewish community in Warsaw between 1930-39 that adds flavour to the world Bashevis Singer writes of and reminds of a World thats gone.
Easily read (in a day of pleasure!) this is hugely enjoyable weather its the first Bashevis Singer you read or-like me-one after many others. I would recommend this to anyone who loves great literature.Excellent.

The setting, time period, and Singer's life as a child of a Rabbi in Warsaw makes for an interesting topic, but young readers have difficuly making personal connections with hasidic Jewish cultures. I recommend this book for young adults interested in Yiddish literature. Support is needed for children that have little understanding of the religious customs and vocabulary.

"A Day Of Pleasure" is a partially interesting book. It is a collection of stories about Isaac Singer's childhood. The story takes place in Warsaw, Poland, and during World War I.Isaac Singer tries to gain maturity at a young age by reading books, learning at school, singing prayer's at church, and getting knowledge from his father. Singer is born in a semi-aristocratic religious family. In one story, he recollects a bad experience event while moving from Warsaw to Poland because his older brother got robbed. In the end he resolves his goal of gaining maturity and also meets a young friend named Sasha.
The book was partially interesting and informative because it talked about life during the World War I era and Jewish culture in Poland. I did not like the book because it was confusing at times and had redundant information. I would recommend this book for kid's who like to learn about Jewish culture, who like comedies, and who like to learn about children growing up.
-- Book review by Jivin Barve

"A Day Of Pleasure" is a partially interesting book. It is a collection of stories about Isaac Singer's childhood. The story takes place in Warsaw, Poland, and during World War I.Isaac Singer tries to gain maturity at a young age by reading books, learning at school, singing prayer's at church, and getting knowledge from his father. Singer is born in a semi-aristocratic religious family. In one story, he recollects a bad experience event while moving from Warsaw to Poland because his older brother got robbed. In the end he resolves his goal of gaining maturity and also meets a young friend named Sasha.
The book was partially interesting and informative because it talked about life during the World War I era and Jewish culture in Poland. I did not like the book because it was confusing at times and had redundant information. I would recommend this book for kid's who like to learn about Jewish culture, who like comedies, and who like to learn about children growing up.
-- Book review by Jivin Barve