• :‘ V 3 4 I i ■ , THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 8 Friday, August 30, 1985 1.,...,, irminumennelmmeamoonnou•nnennentraf. Al %MEAT? I MATIONS'? Seymour Schwartz I I I Hattie Schwartz Of Course! 356-8525 1 i 7387 352 Course! ot FOR THE BEAUTIFUL INVITATIONS • THE RNEST IN MUSIC • I MAN BAND I I I - anosem Lapels peat lags Mt Cellars Ties I I mem • mums PEOPLE TALK ABOUT • • DANCERS • CLOWNS • MIME 1 VENTRILOQUIST • MAGIC HEBREW COPY AVAILABLE • CARICATURE ARTISTS IWO NAME 5 s r. Vie have mashoted the ad of Woke* Ming end tolorIng. N vsk tAPAING RIONIOGRA 546-6200 Sr I IETTIR CISIES i CISTON TAILORS I LINES' & WS IMAMS SMUT I I TUXEDO RENTALS Lowest Prices I 357-1722 1.-Et Ham Men. IL dale TOGETHER WE STAND • Norman Allan & Co. "The name In diamond." Established 1919 Phone: 642-5575 It tt' 00 , ##* IP** +,` If.. bi•e• 1111111110 CERTIFICATE BY GM IN MANN i MANION • 0,040 #114.4 I II tiny old woman recalls her you ful folly in Poland where she came pregnant by her husban live-in tailor's apprentice, a me boy, who decades later, in a sto of love and fate, after the love have parted and gone separate to America, unknowingly b comes his own daughte paramour. "Miracles," "A Tel phone Call on Yom Kippur" a "Confused" use the same strate "Confused is the most acco plished story in the collection. It Singer at his best. It deals wi the problems of writers out on lecture circuit beset by amoro women who throw themselves their feet. The protagonist is aged writer willing to take adva tage of this situation. The right track for Singer, spite the excesses of his ch acters, sexual and otherwise, (Farrar Straus Giroux), Isaac Bashevis Singer writes that "lit- erature thrives best on ancient faith, timeless hopes, and illu- sions." Enlarging upon this ob- servation, he says that literature "must deal with the past instead of planning the future. It must de- scribe events, not analyze ideas; its topic is the individual, not the masses. It must be an art, not pre- tend to be a science. Moreover, be- lief in God and His Providence is the very essence of literature. It tells us that causality is nothing but a mask on the face of destiny. Man is constantly watched by powers that seem to know all his desires and complications. He has free choice but he is also being led by a mysterious hand. Literature is the story of love and fate, a de- scription of the mad hurricane of human passions and the struggle "The Image and with them." Few other writers today would Other Stories" by endorse Singer's unflinching, sweeping insistence on a belief in Isaac Bashevis divine providence, but for him it is the infrastructure which supports Singer. Farrar all that he has written. This Strauss Giroux. seems strange since he has fre- quently been charged in the past with appealing to prurience, fil- the consistently reiterated e ling his stories with unconsciona- phasis upon the belief in God a ble depravity. Evil rather than His monitoring of individu good has seemed to be his metier. human activity. More than o Yet to apprehend the full mean- character figuratively dies ing of his statement quoted above shame after capitulating tote is to come face to face with the tation, while still others reb fundamental narrative strategy temptation only out of sheer fe of a master storyteller. of losing their salvation. Thou Certainly, the actions of his they do not often occupy cen Image and characters in are The almost entirely stage, the lives of decent peop Other Stories motivated by "the mad hurricane both men and women, and the of human passions." In story after ficacy of good deeds are kept sto, one character after another fore us. The ethics, the teachi story seeks his or her own victimize- and the philosophically wisdom of the and Fathe prevail son tion, to say nothing of the exploi- times in actual experience ov tation of others, by indulging for- bidden passions. Lust leads the depravity weakness. What and is salutary in Singe pack. This has long been Singer's stock-in-trade, but it never seems work is that the moral impel to go stale. The commission of an tives are conjoined to b Jewish weak, cc 81 eople may act of wickedness is often followed tinuity. P temptation , t eempt othl immediately by punishment, at comb to in folly, yet even tb and engage least, in the perpetrator's perspec- have a sense of the significance ' tive, confirming that "casuality is ethical conduct. nothing but a mask on the face of Suffice it to say that Sing( destiny." If punishment doesn't paradox, the co-existence of g( occur, the perpetrator is at least and evil is, by virtue of Jew painfully aware of his or her folly. survival (a contradiction of I In "Advice," the opening story, of nature), somewhat when Tamara Pintchover runs off laws in favor of the good. Ti wih Mark Lenchner, her husband solved. perhaps, the one significant! Morrie, a weakling, is sub- we need is to before sequently prevailed upon by the whenever we keep reach for Sing renegade couple to take them in, titillating stories. It is a narral as times are hard, under his roof, strategy that corresponds al along with Lenchner's wife. to our experience of , Foolishly, he does so. The moral is rately world and it makes plans] clear enough: But Singer doesn't faith in divine pry Singer's stop with a didactic message. His deuce. purpose is to entertain. Rep. Honored 10.5:30 104:30 10.5:00 GEM / DIAMOND spEcini,isT Daily Theis. Sat • • • * SpEcial To The Jewish News The need to legitimize folly and enshrine it becomes a device which Singer employs effectively as a narrative strategy in a number of stories. The result is New York — U,S. Rep. that he gets an additional dimen- sion of irony out of each confes- Green (R-NY) will receive sion. All his narrators; have to do American 011T Fedora is listen and report what they Community Achievement AI hear, at a taatimonisi dinner Oct In "The Secret," for example, a in New York. 30400 TELIGRAPH RD., BIRMINGHAM, MI 4010, SUITE 134 Pm' BY JOSEPH COHEN In his succinct introduction to • PROFESSIONAL, QUALITY SERVICE FOR HOME, APARTMENT AND INDUSTRY • SERVICING SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN FOR 50 YEARS IN ALL PHASES OF PEST CONTROL REASONABLE RATES FREE ESTIMATES MI its Isaac Bashevis Singer Melds Good With Evil The Image and Other Stories ERADICO PEST CONTROL Vallitaffe I WITH PURCHASE IF SHIRTS I 1030 WOODWARD HGTS. FERNDALE, MICH. 48220 • 12. 12.1 20 ° /76FF I wrrH THIS AD . olowinamer omossamemsuomismemou samosememso mt. BOOKS NARROWED: 8. • C o •• 4,4 It 14 4. #1, # , ,Co , , „ ■ CC , ICOVIttr y- „,,y,10 , „ „ . „ it • * ) # • 4 "