A DAY OF PLEASURE

            Growing up in Warsaw with Mr. Singer offers more than a day of pleasure to families who joined him In My Father’s Court, from which fourteen of these nineteen episodes are adapted.  But the elevenish contemporary of “Itchele” who lacks the East European frame of reference that these autobiographical sketches demand may have trouble relating to the bittersweetness of the Hasidic upbringing as the lonely son of the rabbi of Krochmalna Street; to his mysterious joy-fear on contemplating the Cabala; to the esoteric character of his family’s Jewish orthodoxy; to the distance between Jew and Gentile so absolute and so very enduring…Mr. Singer’s words as Grandfather-storyteller are best read aloud and interpreted by a grandfather who shares his memories, who can communicate Singer’s hindsights with the authority and spirit of his insights, who can mediate between Singer’s remoteness to the child and his greatness.                       9-11