The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer

Taken straight through, the 47 stories in this collection wear on some readers, the same handful of themes, temptation, adultery, an imp or demon tempting the pious, recurring often enough that one reviewer says the stories “began to seem too similar, losing their potency.” Singer's treatment of women draws pointed pushback too, one reader calling it “fairly misogynist, especially his earlier stories,” and another wondering outright whether the author “disliked women especially, or all of humanity equally.” Stories steeped in Yiddish folklore and religious custom, ‘The Dead Fiddler’ especially, are called hard going for readers without that background, one admitting a “negligible knowledge of Yiddish folklore impaired my appreciation.” At over six hundred pages, the book's size is itself named as a barrier, better dipped into over weeks than read cover to cover.