Customer Reviews

Meshugah

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I first read "The Slave" and fell in love with Singer's simple yet vivid story telling. Meshugah did not disappoint. I enjoyed reading about three colorful characters (Polish refugees) involved in a bizarre love triangle. Meshugah gives great insight on life after the Holocaust. Despite the horrors of WWII, Judaism, the Yiddish language, and love continue in New York City.

This is the story of a group of pre-war Yiddish intellectuals transplanted from Warsaw to New York. The main character, Aaron Greidinger, is a short story and novelist writer as much as I.B.Singer was in real life. His friend Max, long thought dead, reappears and introduces his mistress Miriam. A love triangle forms, upon which other triangles will be formed with the introduction of several other characters. Aaron is attracted to Miriam and sees her as a symbolism of renewal in life and faith, but as he discovers the horrible truths behind her façade, he is led to believe the world will never heal; although he respects God he is unable to love a God who has shown no mercy upon his creation. The novel has a philosophical despairing tone, an overall feeling that indeed the world has gone "meshugah," (crazy, crazy)! This a posthumously novel published in 1994 and certainly not the best form Isaac Bashevis Singer.