Scum (Plume) [Mass Market Paperback]

Isaac Bashevis Singer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995 | Series: Plume

It is 1906. The death of his 17-year-old son has disrupted the life of Max Barabander in Buenos Aires, sending him back to his roots in Warsaw. Having attained wealth and respectability after a youth of poverty and a prison stretch, Max revisits scenes of the past in the thieves' quarter.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Written two decades ago and first published in English early last year, this culturally rich but oddly uninvolving novel by the late Nobel laureate focuses on the existential dilemma of a Jewish man in 1906 Warsaw.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Shady Max Barabander, a Polish Jew, forsakes his adopted home of Argentina after his teenage son suddenly dies and his wife loses interest in living. He goes back to Poland, ostensibly to visit the graves of his parents. Instead, he finds companionship in the criminal underworld of Warsaw. Max seeks out women for his sexual salvation and to escape the constant fear he has of imprisonment and isolation. He becomes involved with a prostitute, a baker's wife, and a rabbi's daughter and others who see him as a means of escaping the legal and societal subjugation they experience in the Poland of 1906. Max deceives them all, and his deceptions--which reflect his spiritual anarchy--lead to violence. That Singer is a master storyteller is evident in this compelling--and quite modern--tale. Although not on par with his greatest works--e.g., Family Moskat , The Slave --this is a striking novel nevertheless, full of memorable characters sketched with great artistry. Highly recommended for most libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/90.
-Paul Kaplan, Dakota Cty. Lib. System, Apple Valley, Minn.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Plume; First Plume Printing edition (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452267862
• ISBN-13: 978-0452267862
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,691,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating novel about a lost world, July 11, 1999

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This review is from: Scum (Hardcover)

Singer (and his translator) manages with beautiful, easy-to-read prose, to evoke a lost world. His sketches of the the people and places in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw c 1906 are memorable and convincing. While I was reading the book I was conscious that the city was flattened in the 1940s and 6/7 of Polish Jews were murdered during the Nazi occupation - i.e. a stark dark line through history cut Max's world off from from today's Poland. Max recalls the assimilated, Spanish speaking Jewish community in Argentina and the ultra-conservative village in Western Poland where he grew up - and to which he is forever planning to return. He observes the pious Warsaw families in their detailed preparations for and observation of the Sabbath - but also the other Jews, the thieves, pimps, whores who live in the same street, and the middle class Jews in their large apartments a few blocks away. This multi-layered community speaks a different language from the millions of Poles that surround them and is loathed by many of the hosts. Singer makes occasional refererence to the pogroms, anti-Semitism, the Russian occupation, but it is not an overtly political novel. It concentrates on the the street life in the ghetto and specifically on the character of Max. Manic mad Max can't help getting into trouble. He lurches from one messy encounter to the next, creating new dangers for himself even before the previous one has been resolved. He has a wife in Argentina, yet promises himself to several Warsaw women in his first few days in the city. His treatment of women is appalling, yet by highlighting his protagonist's self-awareness, self-loathing, his profound grief over his lost son, his occasional moments of kindness, his guilt and conscience, Singer will endear his extraordinary creation to many readers. Max is deeply lonely and Singer explains much of his bizarre behaviour with reference to his desperate need to avoid being alone with his despair. This is my first Singer novel and I will definitely read others - he creates both a strong multi-dimensional central character and a powerful sense of place with stark, economical prose. A glossary of religious and cultural terms would have been helpful - and a few pages of recipes would have been a treat (although I'll skip the cabbage fried in lard!)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A delightful parable, February 14, 2010

By 

Israel Drazin (Boca Raton, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Scum (Paperback)

Isaac Bashevis Singer's Scum is a tale of a 47 year old successful business man, thief and fornicator who hid many of his business deals and money and sex liaisons from his wife, who was his partner. Their son, a teen-ager dies unexpectantly. His wife falls into a deep depression, becomes frigid, and is unable to have a close relationship with him. While he thinks that he is not depressed, he becomes impotent and suffers for several years feeling that he has no enjoyment from his life. He decides to rekindle his zest for life by returning to the ultra-Orthodox Judaism of his youth, beginning with his return to his birthplace Poland and a visit to his parents' graves.
He arrives in Poland in 1906 and is drawn to the thieves' quarter where he discovers two kinds of Jews, the ultra-Orthodox and the unreligious and secular minded criminal class. The former are overwhelmed by piety, study of the Talmud and prayer; the latter by sex.
He makes several attempts to overcome his impotency and to find satisfaction. He becomes involved with five different women, each in a despicable way. He is charmed by the daughter of an extremely poor rabbi and offers her marriage. The girl is young enough to be his daughter. He tries to rape a servant girl to regain his potency. He joins with a woman who is unfaithful to her lover, who is a married man, in an enterprise to seduce or kidnap girls from Poland and take them to his country, Argentina, and place them in a brothel. He has sex with her and thinks that he recovered his potency. He seeks help from a clearly fraudulent clairvoyant to see his dead son and decides to help her escape from a man who is controlling her.
The story, as many written by the Nobel Prize Winner I. B. Singer, can be read as a parable of man's search for meaning and how he is hindered in his search by his failure to realize that he is searching for meaning, his inability to maintain focus on his goal and his failure to abandon his nature, in this case being scum.