MESHUGAH (EMPREINTE) (French Edition) Paperback – January 1, 1995

One of the things I like best about Mr. Singer is his penchant for keeping the reader on his toes. One never knows quite what to expect from him, and you'll be coasting along through his prose, maybe even starting to find it a little tiresome, when--BAM! He'll lay something on you so startling, so explosive, you have to go over it a couple of times to make sure you read it correctly. What makes it the more effective is his lack of fanfare when he does it-- there is no warning, he sneaks it in on you when your guard is down.Meshugah has several of these eye-popping moments in it, along with Singer's trademark talent of bringing his characters to flesh-and-blood life on the page that is matched by very few. Meshugah is the kind of novel that ends far too soon, the kind you'll find yourself wishing was 828 pages long instead of the mere 228 you were given.

Excellent book. Isaac Bashevis Singer's world is, as the title suggests, Meshugah -- crazy. Twists and turns delight, as the main character has perfect self-insight -- and, helplessly, does not follow it.

This is the story of a group of pre-war Yiddish intellectuals transplanted from Warsaw to New York. The main character, Aaron Greidinger, is a short story and novelist writer as much as I.B.Singer was in real life. His friend Max, long thought dead, reappears and introduces his mistress Miriam. A love triangle forms, upon which other triangles will be formed with the introduction of several other characters. Aaron is attracted to Miriam and sees her as a symbolism of renewal in life and faith, but as he discovers the horrible truths behind her façade, he is led to believe the world will never heal; although he respects God he is unable to love a God who has shown no mercy upon his creation. The novel has a philosophical despairing tone, an overall feeling that indeed the world has gone "meshugah," (crazy, crazy)! This a posthumously novel published in 1994 and certainly not the best form Isaac Bashevis Singer.