Enemies, A Love Story
- ISBN13: 9780374515225
- Condition: New
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Product Description
Almost before he knows it, Herman Broder, refugee and survivor of World War II, has three wives: Yadwiga, the Polish peasant who hid him from the Nazis; Masha , his beautiful and neurotic true love; and Tamara, his first wife, miraculously returned from the dead. Astonished by each new complication, and yet resigned to a life of evasion, Herman navigates a crowded, Yiddish New York with a sense of perpetually impending doom.
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September 2nd, 2010 at 12:39 am
New York after the Jewish Holocaust in Europe. Herman Broder lives a frantic life between 2 wives, and soon to be three. He writes books for a rabbi. His life is a lie, a big lie to which he’s grown used. His mind is a mess, just as his life is. The women around him are products of their survival experiences in Europe during the war, as he is too. Religion is present in every page, almost every line, whether it’s mentioned with hate or with hope. Things Jewish are ever present: one gets to learn a lot about Jewish customs and terminology.
The story, however chaotic and improbable, almost ridiculous, doesn’t fail to be interesting. The author sure knows how to move on between scenes and keep the pace of the changes in Herman’s life. The overall impression is of confusion in all areas of live: sentimental, business, psychological, and of course, religious.
These characters behave so weird after their painful experiences, their loss of loved ones, and their witnessing of so much suffering, that they don’t believe in anything anymore, not even in why they keep living. Seems they are bewildered and just make most of what they’ve got at that very moment: which for Herman is most of the time sex. But that is a temporary refuge from insanity, not permanent. People here are lost, drifters melting into the human masses of New York City.
The book is readable, well told, but the story ain’t much fun. Herman just annoys me. And the others aren’t very likable either. It’s a mess of a book that leaves a sweet-sour taste.
Rating: 4 / 5
September 2nd, 2010 at 3:13 am
In New York
The hotel staff
gave me the chair
that
Isaac B Singer
used to
lean his back against
years before he died
custom made
produced
out of gentle wings of butterflies
that circled his first wife’s head
every day and night in Treblinka
before she finally
went
up in smoke
So
I went down at the front desk
A weird occurence
of
that strange and powerful thing
I certainly
wanted to bring to their attention
Of course they say
I. B. Singer
never stayed here
never had a first wife
nor she died in the concentration camp
But what’s metter?
My back
feels better
way better
ever since
Rating: 4 / 5
September 2nd, 2010 at 5:29 am
It’s always hard to talk about Holocaust; it’s unbearable to look at pictures of people tortured there. This book is such a masterpiece it does not go into engrossed misery, it’s about a guy ending up with 3 wifes as a result of a terrible war… It’s funny and ironic – no conclusions – it’s all up to the reader to think about it…
Rating: 5 / 5
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:20 am
Herman Broder has a habit of analyzing his life and placing it in to a larger and unworkable context to justify his misery. Why should one care about his relationships with other humans if the heat death of the universe will inevitably stop all movement in the universe. Why should I help that old lady avoid getting hit by a bus crossing the street if Hitler callously killed millions of jews as if he were a busdriver running over colonies of ants. Herman seems determined to place his life’s journey in to a context that makes it seem miserable and meaningless. But even through his bad decisions, and selfish betrayal of his wife who hid him from the Nazi’s in a straw-pile in her barn for years, Herman is a sympathetic character. You can truly feel his love for the women in his life. You can relate to his nihilism and laugh at his foibles. This is the funniest book about hopeless holocaust survivors you will ever read.
Rating: 5 / 5
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:57 am
It is the first book by Isaac Singer I read and it won’t be the last. A wonderful tale about the strengths and weaknesses of the human heart and mind masterfully written.
Rating: 5 / 5