Of a world that is no more [Hardcover]

Israel Joshua Singer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1971

The author recreate life in Leoncin, a Polish hamlet near the turn of the century.In this moving sometimes very funny memior, he looks back at the tiny village in which he was raised.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Yiddish (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 253 pages
• Publisher: Vanguard Press; First Edition edition (1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814906834
• ISBN-13: 978-0814906835
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,351,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Small Jewel, January 25, 2007

By 

Eric Maroney (Trumansburg, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Of a World That Is No More (Paperback)

Here, the elder Singer writes the memoir of his youth. For fans of his younger brother, the contrast between his memoir, In My Father's Court, and Of a World That is No More, is stark. For both the elder and younger Singer, their father's rabbinical court is an arena to investigate human nature. But they both come away with different world views. For the younger, the past is enveloped in a mist of nostalgia, and characters come and go like stock figures in a dramatic comedy. The message is one of hope: despite the variety of people's failings, there is entertainment value and a moral edge to this all. The younger Singer flees his father's court, but remains there mentally and spiritually. For the elder Singer, this is essentially a dead world. One can't help but think he was pleased that this world no longer existed. Stifled by tradition, hamstrung by superstition, ground down by poverty, this book is an essential read for anyone with the illusion that the residents of shtetl were noble savages. If people can only advance as far as their social world, this memoir shows the danger of too small a human horizon.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A harsh realistic view of the shtetl world told with a deep appreciation for human character, September 11, 2011

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Of a World That Is No More (Paperback)

Israel Joshua Singer tells the story of his childhood world. It is world divided between that of his Hasidic innocent Torah- learning father, and his more practical Litvishe mother. It is a world in which young Singer from day one in the Cheder feels oppressed in the Torah world. It is one in which the ideal of a harmonious beautiful shtetl in which all are kind to each other is shown to be wholly unrealistic. The father was diasproved of by his father- in - law a distinguished Rabbi. The mother and father were in a sense totally incompatible and yet loved each other. Israel Joshua Singer longed for the world outside the cheder and away from the restrictions given in a strictly observant house. He writes beautifully of the journey his mother would take with the children back to her parents house. This would be a holiday for the mother and the children where they would be greeted warmly and spoiled by family of the mother. The father meanwhile would have without his wife more decent cooking and more respect as the people of the town honored a person totally devoted to Torah. At one point Singer states that the family would have been better off if the dreamy father had been the mother, and the practical mother, the father. In any case the picture of the small town Jewish world is rich in interesting characterizations. There are oddballs enough to populate a universe with them.

How does all this compare with the work of the much more famous younger brother who so admired and learned from Israel Joshua. My sense is that the younger brother had a richer world, deeper feeling, a greater power in telling a story. But both brothers are masters each in his own way.

For me the depiction of the shtetl world shakes up my own idealization of it, one I learned from the classic work 'Life is with People' by Zborowski and Herzog. Here the realistic depiction of the poverty and pettiness, the narrowness make me wonder if I have totally misunderstood 'The Shtetl'. In any case this is a valuable work by a writer who gives the reader very much.