The Magician of Lublin

by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Book Overview

Set in nineteenth-century Poland, this novel tells the story of Yasha - a sword swallower, fire eater, acrobat and master of escape - famous for Houdini-like tricks. A free thinker with an observant Jewish wife at home and a woman in every town, his exploits catch up with him and he is tempted to make one final escape - from his marriage, his homeland, and his father's religious heritage. But his plans unravel and he instead seeks to lock himself...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1632921863
• ISBN13: 9781632921864
• Release Date: April 2021
• Publisher: Goodreads Press
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

My first encounter with Singer's writting

- This refers to the spanish edition Orbis Premios Nobel At 17 I had the pleasure of reading this novel and it was my first encounter with Singer and a life long admiration ever after. He is universal and existentialist in his writting. In my opinion, he bridges all spiritual differences and we can all be a same community under his guidance. There is asuperb movie adaptation of the book which I suggest you see too.

19th Century Story Is Just As Gripping Today

This story is similar to "Enemies, A Love Story" in that it features a lead character with too many lovers, and it features some comical moments amid some very dramatic ones. No wonder so much of Singer's work has been translated from Yiddish. You don't have to be of the Jewish faith to identify with the moral struggles of his characters. Even an athiest could relate to the dilemmas faced by Yasha as he feebly tries to do right by all the women in his life, and not surprisingly often does horribly wrong. Singer won my heart in the first chapter, writing lovingly about doting wife Esther. In a lesser writer's hand, she would seem pathetic. But she comes off as an admirable individual with a sense of pride in her faithfulness. In fact, all the characters are so multidimensional, together they seem to be every facet of a woman, which is probably what Yasha really desires. Like all great novels, this one stayed with me for several days, but to say why would be revealing to much. Even after 45 years, it still resonates. This book asks hard questions for which there are no easy answers, and wraps them in a totally compelling tale.

The Jewish Siddhartha

Like Siddhartha, Yasha has led a life of dissipation. In Yasha's case his transgressions consisted of womanizing, excessive alcohol consumption, keeping friends with shady characters, and, finally, burglary and attempted thievery. Suffering a serious injury, the suicide of one of his paramours, and possible imprisonment, Yasha relinquishes his burgeoning career as a magician and tight rope walker in favor of doing deep religious penance. Also, like Siddhartha, Yasha becomes an ascetic. Recognizing himself as a sinner who could easily slip back again to his former ways, Yasha shuts himself off from the world in a most unusual way. Not through any choice of his own, Yasha becomes, "a holy man" with "Jewish men and women (waiting) at (his) window for (his) blessing." Isaac Bashevis Singer has written a thought-provoking novel of tremendous intensity in a style containing deceptively simple language. Singer's characters are full of human frailties and vulnerability. Yasha, in particular, is always questioning the morality of his intended acts and their possible consequences on others. This is especially so after he escapes into a synagogue (Yasha is a fallen away Jew) and achieves an epiphany of sorts. Yasha learns that he is not evil, after all, but simply human and, in many ways worthy of love and admiration.

Trickster Tumbles, Taps into Truth

But can we know what God wants us to do ? Isn't it a case of Man sewing throughout his lifetime the clothes that fit him ? We ask a million questions, however the answers lie only within. You have to do as you see fit. Some say the discipline of orthodox religion points out the road; every bird, every snowflake, every acorn lying on the grass is proof of God's existence. Others deny the whole thing and swear God never existed. Singer's tale of a religiously-lapsed Jewish magician/acrobat is not so much about tricks or a series of interlocking events as about a man torn between Good and Evil. Though Yasha lives on the edge of Polish society and associates with the most dubious of characters, he has a conscience, he loves women and is kind to animals, but always manipulates them to his own ends. He is more and more plagued by self-doubt and indecision as he grows older, until he can no longer act. His life of flimflam grifting, adultery, and hocus-pocus unravels when he ventures to break the 8th commandment---Thou Shalt Not Steal. He himself knows that he has at last gone too far. His four women, his course of dubious activity, his pride in his ability---all then fall away. In the end, Yasha takes a drastic and unexpected measure in order to control his desires and his straying from the path of the righteous. He achieves the fame which eluded him for so many years as a magician. The struggle within him continues unabated. Yasha remains a thinker, a questioner, a wonderer, not a blind accepter of given wisdom. THE MAGICIAN OF LUBLIN epitomizes, in the form of a novel, the basic elements of Jewish thinking. Or at least, it asks and tries to answer the most basic questions of that tradition. It is certainly an interesting novel, but it is also a masterpiece of Jewish philosophy. Man is born to question. If you don't question, you are not even alive. But don't expect to get "THE" answer because it doesn't exist. Nobel Prize winner, Isaac Bashevis Singer, as always, presents a vivid picture of the lost world of the East European Jews in all its gritty piety and desperate poverty., the world swallowed up by Evil, no matter how many prayers were said. For as it is written, (at least to paraphrase a certain well-known spaghetti western), "when a man with a prayer meets a man with a gun, the man with a prayer is a dead man". Singer was lucky enough to escape, but not unmarked, no, not at all. As I started, so I will finish. In view of the meaningless destruction of a whole world wrought by the Holocaust, how can we know what God wants us to do ? This book contains a particular answer, but the quest continues.

A timeless tale of human emotions

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) is one of the true literary giants of twentieth century literature. In this eight cassette, 9 hour, unabridged audiobook edition we are treated to one of his best stories, aptly narrated by Larry Keith. The Magician Of Lublin is a timeless tale of human emotions, questions, and quandaries as young Yasha's reckless courage takes him to the very edge of catastrophe. Singer had an unrivaled gift for creating very real, believable characters caught up in the vicissitudes of life and with whom we can all readily identify. The Magician Of Lublin is a "must" for the legions of Singer fans and would admirable serve to introduce a whole new generation to this master storyteller and his art.