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Seller's Description:
hbk 209pp illus dj is slightly shelfworn with small closed tears at edges, slightly creased (now in protective sleeve) cover is very slightly shelfworn at corners previous owner's insc on first title page, some underlining in the Forward only otherwise a very good clean tight copy
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In 1986, Isaac Bashevis Singer published an autobiography of his early life, "Love and Exile". The book consisted of three works Singer had published in the previous decade: "A Little Boy in Search of God; Mysticism in Personal Light", "A Young Man in Search of Love", and "Lost in America". The books were published individually in gift editions with illustrations by Ira Moskowitz for the first volume and by Raphael Soyer for the second and third volumes. These three volumes are now rare, but I was lucky to find them many years ago on the remainder shelf. The books have stayed with me, and I recently had the urge to revisit them. I am reviewing the first book here.
"A Little Boy in Search of God" tells the story of Singer's early life up to young manhood. Although the book offers a portrayal of life in the Ghettos of Poland in the years before and through WW I, its focus is internal. The book tells the story of a highly introspective, self-centered, bookish child and young man who from the earliest days of his life becomes absorbed with philosophical and religious questions about the nature of human life and of God and about the pervasive character of suffering and evil.
Singer had the opportunity to explore large questions. His father was a rabbi and his mother was the daughter of a rabbi. Singer's older brother, I.J. Singer would become a novelist in his own right and he early on was a religious skeptic who challenged his younger brother with his ideas and his interest in the sciences. From his youngest days, Singer tried to understand the tension between science and religion and between both of them and philosophy and mysticism. In a short introduction to this volume, Singer states that mysticism and religion both share a basis in the human soul. Mysticism is personal, idiosyncratic and experiential while religion is based on revelation and stresses the communal character of shared belief. Singer states that this autobiography tries "to relate the experiences of one who considers himself a bit of a mystic in his life and in his literary creations."
The book takes the reader through Singer's extensive youthful reading, beginning with the traditional Jewish texts he learned at home and in religious school. Singer also quickly came under the influence of Jewish mystical writings known as the Kabballah, of science, and of philosophy, especially the thought of Spinoza. His early explorations of these books, in the company of his brothers, his parents, and ultimately others is at the heart of this book.
The book shows Singer in small Polish towns and in Warsaw during and after the Great War. The young man struggles to find his way in life with help from his older brother. He participates in a Writers Club in Warsaw which strengthens his resolve to become a writer. Singer is moved deeply by the wartime suffering he sees around him and he continues to read deeply in philosophy, including Spinoza and the Jewish mystic Nachman of Bratslav. He also makes a lifelong friendship with the Yiddish poet Aaron Zeitlin. As the book progresses, the young Singer becomes increasingly drawn to women and sexuality. He would neither be the first nor the last to tie his mysticism together with human eroticism. The book closes with Singer in the middle of a relationship with an older woman.
I was moved by this book and by the young Singer's philosophical questioning and exploration of the life of the mind and, soon thereafter, of the body. Coming from a different culture and age, I understood many of these experiences. I also was moved by Ira Moskowitz' drawings for this volume which sympathetically capture Jewish life, focusing on study and on music-making in the Europe of Singer's youth. The drawings are not included in the published trilogy, "Love and Exile".
I was glad to revisit "A Little Boy in Search of God" after many years. I look forward to rereading the two other volumes of Singer's trilogy.
