Customer Reviews

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

englander has delivered a fresh perspective on ancient political and personal problems. other reviewers who criticize this young genius for not writing about his own experience or lambasting orthodox jews miss the point of fiction and writing entirely. surely englander's characters, though struggling with religious constraints and overbearing spouses, have joy as well and the writer has not failed to illustrate their full experience. one only has to look to their manner and listen to their expression a little more carefully. characterization is perhaps the most difficult hurdle for fiction writer's and englander, at 27, is a master. I am especially amazed at his ability to capture the voice of middle aged women, something he surely has never been and never will. should he never write about women? don't be absurd! and thank heavens he has avoided the surely drab memoir of a 27 year old man. the world could do with less biographies and more imagination like that of englander.

These are wonderful stories, I found myself reading them slowly and carefully, they were too clever and emotionally involving to do otherwise. I have to take issue with the reader who criticizes Englander for writing about people he has not been (a department store Santa, a Park Avenue gentile) etc. Crazy - the day writers only write about what they have been is the day fiction stops being exactly that, fiction, and becomes memoir, or worse, plain reportage. Whatever interesting experiences Englander has had in his private life I'm glad he has taken the time to let his imagination run free and become a storyteller. Stories - that is why we read fiction isn't it? I don't believe Michael Ondaatje was a pilot in the Second World War either, but fortunately he wrote The English Patient regardless. I thought Englander's stories were quite wonderful, and the women in them lovingly and touchingly rendered. Englander hasn't been a woman in his life either, but thank god he didn't hesitate to write The Wig or The Last One Way, or we would have been deprived of reading about Ruchama's stiffling marriage and Gita's desperate bid for freedom from her brutal husband.

Nine short stories, surprising for the beauty of the language and for the very particular style, always suspended between the magic atmsophere of Yiddish fables and the realistic concreteness which characterizes most of North American novelists.
A really beautiful book, whose deep suggestion reminds some paintings by Marc Chagall (see especially the second tale).
It is a pity that the Italian translation is not adequate.

Sure, Englander has a flavor-of-the-month quality about him. He's been relentlessly promoted in the press, and judging from the photo on the book jacket, he is one gorgeous dudestud. But this is one dudestud who can write! His stories are finely wrought miniatures that illuminate the lives of the characters. That he happens to write about the Orthodoxy is besides the point. The criticisms I have read about him engaging in character assassination of the hasidism are ridiculous - he is merely a writer telling a story. His goal is to get at the emotional truth which underlies a situation - not to insult anybody's religion.

A book. You are first drawn by the intriguing title, then you notice that some of the letters are smudged, as though tear-stained. Did you somehow spill water on the cover? No, the dust jacket is designed that way, to remind us that sometimes relief comes in the form of tears, sometimes in sexual release, sometimes in death.

The inside of the dust jacket is misleading - the title story, "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges", is called "hilarious". Despite this, the praise is flowing (and you don't know differently, anyhow) and you are drawn into the stories between the covers. What do you find?

Writing that is masterful, but misdirected. A voice that is shockingly mature, incongruous with the photograph of the handsome boy on the cover. Stories that are obsessed with persecution, whether by the government or by loved ones or by one's peers or one's church. Few of the characters within these pages are unencumbered by expectation, by disappointment, by disillusionment.

You search the book for the "hilarious" story foretold and find the sad, pathetic tale of a man sexually rebuffed by his wife and given a special dispensation by his Rabbi to visit a prostitute "for the relief of unbearable urges". The result turns the tables on the poor fellow, but is not amusing. You continue reading; the last story, "In This Way We are Wise", contains the poetic, oddly beautiful, ruminations of a bomb-blast survivor and his sorrow at having lived. You are illuminated by the beauty of the prose, you are destroyed by its message.

You may enjoy reading about the Jewish experience, writers such as Roth, Singer, Bellow. Depending upon your focus you may read quite a bit of this literature or perhaps only a smattering in the New Yorker. You find that Englander glazes his prose with Judaica to the point that everything here is deeply flavored with it, so no matter how much or how little you read, you taste the culture of the Jewish people, whether they be modern Jews in Israel or Holocaust-era Jews in Poland.

You walk away enlightened, impressed, but perhaps a little depressed, too.

I approached this collection of short stories with very high expectations. These expectations were set by the reviews here and in other media. Based on these reviews I expected this book to be a rich and rewarding experience. I found, however, that the stories conveyed a certain hollowness of tone and singularity of viewpoint that was distracting and ultimately not fully satisfying. There is no doubt in my mind that the author can produce beautiful prose and has important ideas to convey, but I think his true promise lies in his future work. I recommend the book, but feel it might be over-praised.

I generally liked this book, for the reasons stated by the positive reviewers. I did, however, like some stories better than others. I think the first stories were the best, and the collection went downhill from there (and I can see why the title story, "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges", may have ticked off Orthodox readers- though even there I thought the characters were basically sympathetic if foolish). I also think Englander has trouble with endings; about half of them tended to be kind of opaque and hard to follow.

Of all the reviews and comments re: this book, I was very impressed at something which no one has yet mentioned: Englander was very senstitive to Orthodox women, in the sense that he portrayed extremely well those women who felt constrained by orthodoxy. In particular, I am referring to the short story re: the woman 'agunah', the grass widow, who wants a Jewish divorce so very badly, that she conspires to kill the matchmaker. Also I was very impressed by the story re: the wigmaker, the woman who loves beauty, but is unable to express herself as fully as she would like within the confines of the Orthodox culture. For those who have commented that Englander is cynical about religion, that he refuses to find the "good" in Orthodox Judaism, in any strict system there are those who like it and those who don't. He is sympathetic to those who feel constrained by it, and shows their plight. I have known such people, and am happy that a few writers are dealing with them. Keep up the good work, Nathan. We look forward to more stories re: the world you were raised in.

I have never been a big fan of short stories. Once in a while something makes me read a book of them and with only rare exceptions the genre doesn't do much for me. Well, something made me read this book and I loved every single story.I can't rave enough to people about this book and I can't wait for Mr. Englander's next offering. I will rush to read anything he ever writes. This is a terrific book! While it is a realistic depiction of various aspects of the Jewish condition, all the stories are set into imaginatively far-fetched and amusing vehicles, in differing locales and eras, and all are brilliant renditions wrought with a delicious mixture of both humor and pathos. There isn't a weak link in the entire collection of nine stories.

There's a lot of hype around this author and his first collection of short stories. For the most part I think it is all deserving. 'For the Relief...' is a great collection - original, imaginative, extremely humorous and written in a wonderfully fluid style. Most stories are lighter than I would have thought they would be and it would be nice to see Englander try some heavier themes in future books. I disagree that some knowledge of, or interest in, Judaism is required - these are universal stories, and I would demand that anyone worrying about these issues read the book and be pleasantly suprised. Having said that, there is a feeling that Englander is somewhat limiting himself - and his writing - by staying within these boundaries. But lets not forget this is only his first book and he has a long career ahead of him.