Journey to My Father, Isaac Bashevis Singer: A Memoir

by Israel Zamir, Barbara Harshav (Translator)

Overview

When Isaac Bashevis Singer emigrated to America in 1935, he left behind his wife and five-year-old son, Israel, with the promise to send for them as soon as he settled. He never did. In 1955, twenty years after their separation, Zamir came to New York to meet his father. Gradually their mutual trust grew, and Singer came to rely on his son, also a writer, to translate many of his works into Hebrew.

Singer’s strengths and failings, his methods for working, his passion of the Yiddish language, his lust for words, for women and for life all come to new light in Zamir’s candid and touching account. An honest exploration of the often charged and complex relationship between father and son, Journey to My Father, Isaac Bashevis Singer is a personal and moving portrait of one of the 20th century’s major writers.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628725216
Publisher:	Arcade
Publication date:	06/16/2015
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Israel Zamir is the only son of classic American writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer.He is a writer and journalist and has translated most of his father’s works into Hebrew. The father of four children, he lives in Israel with his wife, Aviva.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

1 On the Way to Beth-El 1

2 The First Encounter 9

3 We Grow Close for a Moment 19

4 Demons and Ghosts at Steinberg's 34

5 Labor Pains of a Story 43

6 Aunt Genia 50

7 Singer, Get Out 62

8 Delicate Relations 72

9 Sobering Up 79

10 Thief of Love 84

11 Silent Yodel 95

12 Demons Caper among the Ruins 107

13 Exodus '67 117

14 Flower Children 126

15 In a Hotel on Yom Kippur 134

16 The City of Trolls 142

17 Trying on a Tuxedo 152

18 To Find a Yiddish Typewriter 158

19 The Owner of a Head of Cabbage 167

20 Walking with a Princess 173

21 Scorn of Yiddish 180

22 The General and the Writer 187

23 New York Speaks Yiddish 192

24 God Is Unfair to Life 199

25 Salute to Immigrants 207

26 The Last Supper 214

27 When Your Brain Betrays You 223

28 I Learned to Love Him 231