For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories (Paperback)

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Amazon.com Review
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is an astonishment. Whether Nathan Englander is creating the last days of 27 condemned Soviet writers or the first in which a Park Avenue lawyer finds religion (in a taxi, no less), his gift is everywhere in evidence. Englander's specialty is the collision of Jewish law and tradition with secular realities, whether in Brooklyn, Tel Aviv, or Stalinist Russia. In one tale, a wigmaker from an ultra-orthodox Brooklyn enclave journeys into Manhattan for supplies and, more importantly, inspiration--frequenting a newsstand where she pays for the right to flip through forbidden fashion magazines. If all Ruchama wants to do is be beautiful again and momentarily free of communal constraints, others ask only to survive. In "The Tumblers," set in World War II Poland (with a metafictional twist), followers of the Mahmir Rebbe get into a train filled with circus performers rather than into a cattle car. Their only chance is to camouflage themselves as part of the troupe:

Their acceptance as acrobats was a stretch, a first-glance guess, a benefit of the doubt granted by circumstance and only as valuable as their debut would prove. It was an absurd undertaking. But then again, Mendel thought, no more unbelievable than the reality from which they'd escaped, no more unfathomable than the magic of disappearing Jews.

Another story, "Reb Kringle," is almost breezy by comparison. Each year, one Brooklynite dreads his holiday job from hell, playing Santa Claus in a Manhattan department store: "There were elves posted on each side of Itzik; one--a humorless, muscular midget--wore a pair of combat boots that gave him the look of elf-at-arms. His companion might have been a twin. He wore black high-tops but had the same vigilant paramilitary demeanor." Itzik can put up with the children's accidents and greed, with his sciatica, and even with a mischief maker's attempt to cut off his beard. But when one boy admits that what he really wants to do is celebrate Hanukkah, "the infamous Reb Santa" loses it. Though this is undoubtedly the collection's lightest piece--proof positive that you have to be a saint to be a Jewish Santa--it is no less piercing an examination of identity and obligation than Englander's more heavyweight entries. --Kerry Fried

From Publishers Weekly
"I suffer greatly under the urges with which I have been blessed," says Dov Binyamin, an orthodox Jew agonizing over his wife Chava's self-imposed celibacy, and one of several protagonists in Englander's stellar first collection who seek often ill-fitting rabbinical answers to thorny modern problems. When Dov's rebbe grants him authorization to see a prostitute, the consequences (not least of which is a case of VD) offer a moral fable of pathos and hilarity that is the signature key of these nine graceful and remarkably self-assured stories. Ranging expertly from contemporary Israel to New York and to isolated Yiddish communities in Russia and Europe, they spin a vision of 20th-century orthodox Judaism under siege from both political tyranny and the rapid pace of modern life. Englander's prose is spare and crystalline, capturing the singsong rhythms and sometimes contorted English of a primarily Yiddish cast, often striking a deliberately archaic tone, as in "The 27th Man," the Chekhovian tale of Pinchas Pelovits, a dreamy, unpublished writer in midcentury Russia. Not unlike Englander, Pinchas has "constructed his own world with a compassionate God and a diverse group of worshipers. In it, he tested these people with moral dilemmas and tragedies." Abducted by Stalin's henchmen, Pinchas composes a miniature masterpiece, a parable of faith in spite of an absent God, which he recites to his cell mates only minutes before being gunned down by a firing squad. Despite their surface mixture of humor and horror, these are stories of ideas, offering complex meditations on Judaism through the eyes of an astonishing range of characters: a disconsolate middle-age orthodox woman imprisoned in limbo by a husband who won't grant a divorce; a Cheeveresque Park Avenue financial analyst with a taxi-cab epiphany that he's Jewish; an American navigating the streets of contemporary Jerusalem during a terrorist campaign. Englander's reported $350,000 advance for this collection has made it one of the most bruited literary debuts of the year. Such brouhaha shouldn't cloud the achievement of these unpretentious and powerful stories.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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94 Reviews 5 star:  (44) 4 star:  (21) 3 star:  (13) 2 star:  (7) 1 star:  (9)           Average Customer Review 3.9 out of 5 stars (94 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   23 of 24 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars delightfully irreverent, October 29, 1999 By A Customer 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. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   26 of 29 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative, original and profound, October 16, 1999 By A Customer 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. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   10 of 10 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars a magic daydream, September 18, 2000 By  eleonora cavallini (Bologna, Italy) - See all my reviews 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. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 94 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 3.0 out of 5 stars Nine Short Stories with Themes Related to Judaism Nathan Englander's compilation of nine short stories has provocative and surreal themes. All of the stories have some relationship to being Jewish, Jewish religion, or Jewish... Read more Published 4 months ago by B. Brody 4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, he's like the Dour Jewish David Searis ! ! ! In a good way... as in stern, grim. ... have to give this four stars because the Yiddish terms [without footnotes, although not in most cases impossible to decode]... Read more Published 5 months ago by W. Wilkerson 4.0 out of 5 stars The Opening Story is STUNNING The opening story was startling--I've never read anything like it. It wasn't the tone or the voice that startled--they were familiar in the way that Malamud sounds familiar, in... Read more Published 10 months ago by Jessica Anya Blau, author, The... 5.0 out of 5 stars satisfaction A book ordered through Amazon.com includes: A simple questionaire An immediate reply A wonderful price (0.26$!!! Read more Published 13 months ago by Dalia Katz 5.0 out of 5 stars A Big Advance Book... and probably worth the six figures Much has been written about what works in this collection of short stories, so I will dwell on what does not. Read more Published on June 7, 2007 by Eric Maroney 5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Elegant of Books It's hard to put into words how beautiful and compelling I find Mr. Englander's work, and this, his first effort, is my all-time favorite short story collection. Read more Published on April 21, 2007 by Susanne Koenig 4.0 out of 5 stars Unique story collection Nathan Englander has an incredible way with words. The stories in this collection have an abundance of deft characterizations and shrewd observations, making "For the Relief of... Read more Published on June 3, 2006 by Gregory Baird 4.0 out of 5 stars Good but somewhat uneven I generally liked this book, for the reasons stated by the positive reviewers. I did, however, like some stories better than others. Read more Published on March 21, 2005 by Michael Lewyn 4.0 out of 5 stars A superb work by a promising new Jewish voice. In "The Trial", Franz Kafka places his protagonist Joseph K. in an authoratative world full of absurdities and secret courts that extend their rule from the sweltering heat of... Read more Published on January 24, 2005 by Timothy Freeman 5.0 out of 5 stars For the Relief of Unbearable Urges for Good Short Stories Englander has managed to string together a wonderful collection of short stories, unlike any that I have read before. Read more Published on November 10, 2003 Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 94 customer reviews...

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