Meshugah Author:Isaac Bashevis Singer Meshugah (me-shug'-a) -- Yiddish word meaning crazy, senseless, insane. — From Library Journal: — Life certainly can be "meshugah," especially when love is involved. In this third posthumously published novel, Singer explores the complications and contradictions that arise when a young Holocaust survivor named Miriam falls simultaneously in love w... more »ith two older men: Aaron, a 47-year-old writer for the Forward who is seemingly patterned after Singer himself, and Max, a 67-year-old bon vivant speculator who goes bust, both financially and physically. That Max and Miriam are both married to others adds yet another twist to the situation, as does the truth about the way in which Miriam managed her survival. Ever the consummate storyteller, Singer understands that there is a bit of God and the devil in everyone and that passion cannot be explained. He also both celebrates and mourns a Yiddish culture that is rapidly vanishing. "Who will know a generation from now how the Jews of Eastern Europe lived, how they spoke, what they ate?" asks Max. Thanks to Singer and the finely drawn characters that inhabit his fiction, many more than would have otherwise. This typically "Singer" tale belongs in most libraries.
- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
MESHUGAH (copyright 1994), by Isaac Bashevis Singer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Translated from the Yiddish by the author and Nili Wachtel.« less