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Magician of Lublin

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But can we know what God wants us to do ? Isn't it a case of Man sewing throughout his lifetime the clothes that fit him ? We ask a million questions, however the answers lie only within. You have to do as you see fit. Some say the discipline of orthodox religion points out the road; every bird, every snowflake, every acorn lying on the grass is proof of God's existence. Others deny the whole thing and swear God never existed. Singer's tale of a religiously-lapsed Jewish magician/acrobat is not so much about tricks or a series of interlocking events as about a man torn between Good and Evil. Though Yasha lives on the edge of Polish society and associates with the most dubious of characters, he has a conscience, he loves women and is kind to animals, but always manipulates them to his own ends. He is more and more plagued by self-doubt and indecision as he grows older, until he can no longer act. His life of flimflam grifting, adultery, and hocus-pocus unravels when he ventures to break the 8th commandment---Thou Shalt Not Steal. He himself knows that he has at last gone too far. His four women, his course of dubious activity, his pride in his ability---all then fall away. In the end, Yasha takes a drastic and unexpected measure in order to control his desires and his straying from the path of the righteous. He achieves the fame which eluded him for so many years as a magician. The struggle within him continues unabated. Yasha remains a thinker, a questioner, a wonderer, not a blind accepter of given wisdom.

THE MAGICIAN OF LUBLIN epitomizes, in the form of a novel, the basic elements of Jewish thinking. Or at least, it asks and tries to answer the most basic questions of that tradition. It is certainly an interesting novel, but it is also a masterpiece of Jewish philosophy. Man is born to question. If you don't question, you are not even alive. But don't expect to get "THE" answer because it doesn't exist. Nobel Prize winner, Isaac Bashevis Singer, as always, presents a vivid picture of the lost world of the East European Jews in all its gritty piety and desperate poverty., the world swallowed up by Evil, no matter how many prayers were said. For as it is written, (at least to paraphrase a certain well-known spaghetti western), "when a man with a prayer meets a man with a gun, the man with a prayer is a dead man". Singer was lucky enough to escape, but not unmarked, no, not at all. As I started, so I will finish. In view of the meaningless destruction of a whole world wrought by the Holocaust, how can we know what God wants us to do ? This book contains a particular answer, but the quest continues.

Like Siddhartha, Yasha has led a life of dissipation. In Yasha's case his transgressions consisted of womanizing, excessive alcohol consumption, keeping friends with shady characters, and, finally, burglary and attempted thievery. Suffering a serious injury, the suicide of one of his paramours, and possible imprisonment, Yasha relinquishes his burgeoning career as a magician and tight rope walker in favor of doing deep religious penance. Also, like Siddhartha, Yasha becomes an ascetic. Recognizing himself as a sinner who could easily slip back again to his former ways, Yasha shuts himself off from the world in a most unusual way. Not through any choice of his own, Yasha becomes, "a holy man" with "Jewish men and women (waiting) at (his) window for (his) blessing."

Isaac Bashevis Singer has written a thought-provoking novel of tremendous intensity in a style containing deceptively simple language. Singer's characters are full of human frailties and vulnerability. Yasha, in particular, is always questioning the morality of his intended acts and their possible consequences on others. This is especially so after he escapes into a synagogue (Yasha is a fallen away Jew) and achieves an epiphany of sorts. Yasha learns that he is not evil, after all, but simply human
and, in many ways worthy of love and admiration.

This story is similar to "Enemies, A Love Story" in that it features a lead character with too many lovers, and it features some comical moments amid some very dramatic ones.

No wonder so much of Singer's work has been translated from Yiddish. You don't have to be of the Jewish faith to identify with the moral struggles of his characters. Even an athiest could relate to the dilemmas faced by Yasha as he feebly tries to do right by all the women in his life, and not surprisingly often does horribly wrong.

Singer won my heart in the first chapter, writing lovingly about doting wife Esther. In a lesser writer's hand, she would seem pathetic. But she comes off as an admirable individual with a sense of pride in her faithfulness. In fact, all the characters are so multidimensional, together they seem to be every facet of a woman, which is probably what Yasha really desires.

Like all great novels, this one stayed with me for several days, but to say why would be revealing to much. Even after 45 years, it still resonates. This book asks hard questions for which there are no easy answers, and wraps them in a totally compelling tale.

To those who might have dismissed Isaac B. Singer because he is perceived to be a "Jewish" writer writing about "Jewish themes", I ask them to please read this book. The theme of the novel encompasses all aspects of human behavior and develops the omnipresent theme of ambivalence of action in making a decision. The book can be read in no more than two days, so put it to the top of your summer reading list.

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) is one of the true literary giants of twentieth century literature. In this eight cassette, 9 hour, unabridged audiobook edition we are treated to one of his best stories, aptly narrated by Larry Keith. The Magician Of Lublin is a timeless tale of human emotions, questions, and quandaries as young Yasha's reckless courage takes him to the very edge of catastrophe. Singer had an unrivaled gift for creating very real, believable characters caught up in the vicissitudes of life and with whom we can all readily identify. The Magician Of Lublin is a "must" for the legions of Singer fans and would admirable serve to introduce a whole new generation to this master storyteller and his art.

'The Magician of Lublin' is the best novel I've read in a long time. Written in a very simple style, it is the story of a Polish Jew in the 19th century, at a time when Poland was ruled by Tsarist Russia. Yasha, the protagonist, is a man of many skills - magician, acrobat, hypnotist, cardsharp - whose talents and ambition propel him further and further toward the limits of what is humanly possible.

His mercurial nature and easy susceptibility to boredom have led him into a lifestyle which mirrors his acrobatic feats, since he is balancing many different roles and relationships in his dealings with the world, particularly with women.

Indeed, his exploits have placed him in the position of continually walking a figurative tightrope, where any slight misstep might send him and and all his artfully juggled situations into a disastrous plummet. The strain is beginning to tell, as the difficulties of maintaining his multiple lives is compounded by a crisis of conscience because of the seeming inevitability that his actions will eventually bring disgrace and ruin upon himself, his wife and many others affected by his deceptions.

Not surprisingly, all these worries cause him to remember that he has wandered from the religious and cultural traditions of his Jewish heritage, and to long for the comfort of the fold. But his individualism, self-reliance and questioning nature pit themselves against this desire to repent and seek forgiveness within the traditional faith.

Yasha's changes of psychological perspective are extreme as he wavers between profound remorse and unrepentant defiance, between paranoid fear of ruin and inflated optimism that he can beat the odds. These many moods, which become ever harder to control are reminiscent,in their extremity, of a character out of Dostoevsky. But yet, they are also magnified reflections of the same sorts of impulses and drives that buffet most humans.

Yasha's ultimate crisis, when it comes,illustrates the remarkable occurrence that the failings of a great sinner can coexist simultaneously with the capacity for saintliness in the same individual.

The style of the book is simple and direct, but it manages to tell a story which is both interesting and profound. To me, 'The Magician of Lublin' is an example of literature at it's finest.

- This refers to the spanish edition Orbis Premios Nobel

At 17 I had the pleasure of reading this novel and it was my first encounter with Singer and a life long admiration ever after.

He is universal and existentialist in his writting. In my opinion, he bridges all spiritual differences and we can all be a same community under his guidance.

There is asuperb movie adaptation of the book which I suggest you see too.

Yasha is at his peak; a talented magician famed throughout Poland he has a devoted wife and a string of mistresses. He plans to elope with Emilia to Italy where he would earn wider fame,yet his conscience troubles him; these transgressions go against his grain. In the space of a day his whole world begins to fall apart piece by piece.He sees his salvation only in death and a reconcilliation with God....
Bashevas Singer is a master story teller in the great middle European tradition and this reads like a Grimm fairy tale. Bashevas Singer also infuses the tale with the vibrant jewish culture that existed in Poland at the turn of the last century; a culture that survived Russian pogroms but vanished after the holocaust,which meant that jewish people could no longer passively await a messiah and accepting suffering as Bashevas Singer's jews do.
Yasha's struggle to find God in a Godless world may seem well worn, but thats only because others have followed Bashevas Singers lead. Masterful story telling from a deserved nobel winner.

This is about a magician of Jewish origin in Poland in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. He is married to a Jewish woman who lives in Lublin, has a Catholic assistant who doubles as his mistress in Warsaw, also keeps another mistress (the wife of an imprisoned felon) in Piask. He has "fallen in love" with a Catholic widow who is asking him to convert to Catholicism and marry her. He is caught in a mental bind in that he wants to have this widow - which means giving up everything else - but he also needs money as the widow wants to move them to Italy for the health of her daughter. So he attempts to rob a miser and, in the process, he damages his leg, which forces him to do some soul searching. Personally, I think the book would have been better without the epilogue.