Overview

While Vili has neither the multi-generational sweep nor the moral gravitas of Singer’s family sagas, its themes are nonetheless timeless, its struggles archetypal. A father and son grapple with each other, and, in the process, a richly compact narrative emerges: a rebellious son leaves his ancestral home—an unnamed village in Poland—to find adventure among strangers and lose tradition and family along the way. Their respective stories define what is lost and what is gained in the immigrant passage to the new world. The eponymous hero, Volf Rubin—or Willy (Vili) Robin in America—is the rare agon who must share center stage with his antagonist, that is, his more voluble paterfamilias. The sententious Hirsh—modeled on Singer's own painful childhood interactions with the savage brutality of the chief rabbi of Nyesheve—tenaciously holds onto some of the more merciless and ""bone- breaking"" pronouncements derived from a literalist reading and application of Jewish law. Such is the heavy baggage which, according to Volf, should have been left behind in steerage. Volf's lapsed Judaism is his father’s dystopian nightmare. He much prefers nature and farm animals to any form of classroom. Eventually, he leaves home for the New World, and there a whole new story unfolds—or is it so “new”?

Full Product Details

9780761871828

Table of Contents

Reviews

This capacious novella depicts a world in transition seen through the lens of family, social and religious traditions: the reader follows Willy and his constellation from Jewish Shtetl to farm and city in America, all drawn in vivid strokes. The novella's wide-ranging, masterful introduction as well as the faithful and fluent translation--an echo of the original Yiddish--further add to its assured place in the canon of Jewish literature.--Frieda Forman, author of The Exile Book of Yiddish Women Writers Willy is a small gem of a novel by a master story-teller, lovingly and compellingly translated into English by Joshua Fogel and Linda Lipsky, with an informative introduction by Linda Lipsky. Largely overlooked among Singer's work, Willy is an engrossing and ironic parable of Jewish immigration to America in the early 20th century, its costs and advantages, as filtered through the consciousness of a Jewish farmer, who, no matter how hard he tries to escape his Jewishness, nor how far he travels, cannot shake the tug of the Old Country and the demands of his family. A valuable addition to those of Singer's works already translated into English.--Goldie Morgentaler, professor, University of Lethbridge

This capacious novella depicts a world in transition seen through the lens of family, social and religious traditions: the reader follows Willy and his constellation from Jewish Shtetl to farm and city in America, all drawn in vivid strokes. The novella's wide-ranging, masterful introduction as well as the faithful and fluent translation--an echo of the original Yiddish--further add to its assured place in the canon of Jewish literature. Willy is a small gem of a novel by a master story-teller, lovingly and compellingly translated into English by Joshua Fogel and Linda Lipsky, with an informative introduction by Linda Lipsky. Largely overlooked among Singer's work, Willy is an engrossing and ironic parable of Jewish immigration to America in the early 20th century, its costs and advantages, as filtered through the consciousness of a Jewish farmer, who, no matter how hard he tries to escape his Jewishness, nor how far he travels, cannot shake the tug of the Old Country and the demands of his family. A valuable addition to those of Singer's works already translated into English.

Willy is a small gem of a novel by a master story-teller, lovingly and compellingly translated into English by Joshua Fogel and Linda Lipsky, with an informative introduction by Linda Lipsky. Largely overlooked among Singer's work, Willy is an engrossing and ironic parable of Jewish immigration to America in the early 20th century, its costs and advantages, as filtered through the consciousness of a Jewish farmer, who, no matter how hard he tries to escape his Jewishness, nor how far he travels, cannot shake the tug of the Old Country and the demands of his family. A valuable addition to those of Singer's works already translated into English. Willy is a small gem of a novel by a master story-teller, lovingly and compellingly translated into English by Joshua Fogel and Linda Lipsky, with an informative introduction by Linda Lipsky. Largely overlooked among Singer's work, Willy is an engrossing and ironic parable of Jewish immigration to America in the early 20th century, its costs and advantages, as filtered through the consciousness of a Jewish farmer, who, no matter how hard he tries to escape his Jewishness, nor how far he travels, cannot shake the tug of the Old Country and the demands of his family. A valuable addition to those of Singer's works already translated into English. --Goldie Morgentaler, professor, University of Lethbridge This capacious novella depicts a world in transition seen through the lens of family, social and religious traditions: the reader follows Willy and his constellation from Jewish Shtetl to farm and city in America, all drawn in vivid strokes. The novella's wide-ranging, masterful introduction as well as the faithful and fluent translation--an echo of the original Yiddish--further add to its assured place in the canon of Jewish literature. This capacious novella depicts a world in transition seen through the lens of family, social and religious traditions: the reader follows Willy and his constellation from Jewish Shtetl to farm and city in America, all drawn in vivid strokes. The novella's wide-ranging, masterful introduction as well as the faithful and fluent translation--an echo of the original Yiddish--further add to its assured place in the canon of Jewish literature. --Frieda Forman, editor of The Exile Book of Yiddish Women Writers

Author Information

Joshua A. Fogel is Canada research chair and professor of history at York University. His work encompasses the cultural dimension of Sino-Japanese relations. His scholarly interests also include translation as a practice and Yiddish biography. Linda/Leye Lipsky teaches literature in the Department of Humanities at York University in Toronto. She has written critical appreciations of Avrom Liessin, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, and others. She has a specific interest in the interrelations of literature and philosophy, the crosscurrents of poetry, and the visual arts.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available