The Certificate

By Isaac Bashevis Singer

Book Overview

David Bendiner, a young writer and secularized Jew, has qualified to emigrate from Warsaw to Palestine, but he's broke, and in order to make the journey, he must enter into a fictitious marriage with a prosperous woman eager to get there. Grappling with romantic, political and philosophical turmoil, David must also confront his faith when his father, an Orthodox rabbi, shows up in Warsaw.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374120293
• ISBN13: 9780374120290
• Release Date: November 1992
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

A SINGER WORTH RESCUING

I.B. Singer's "The Certificate" is one of the books his estate unearthed from the pages of the Jewish Daily Forward after his death, a Yiddish text Singer himself chose not to translate into English in his lifetime. That alone makes us wonder if it should have been brought out. But unlike other posthumous issues (the thin "Meshugah" or the squalid "Shadows on the Hudson"), "The Certificate" is a real work of merit, if not top Singer, mainly because it is so autobiographical. The nineteen-year-old David Bendiger, son of a Polish village rabbi, arrives in Warsaw in 1922 to start his career as a writer, and is cast adrift there. He is penniless, weak, feckless, unkempt, tongue-tied, unable to hold onto either keys or money. Zionists offer him an expense-paid trip to Palestine if he will marry the woman paying, then divorce her after they get there. While strings are pulled to get "the certificate" to emigrate, David lives as passively as a leaf tossed in the wind--exactly like Singer when he first came to Warsaw. Of special interest are the scenes when David's older brother, also a writer, shows up, a kind but dominating figure before whom David is still a dependent child, much like I.B.'s relationship with his own older brother, I.J., an established Yiddish writer. In real life, I.J. did everything for I.B., even bringing him to New York before the war and placing him at the Forward, but I.B.'s tormented resentments made it impossible for him to write anything of significance until I.J. died of a heart attack in 1944. Freed by this, I.B.'s writing took off at once, and by 1950 Knopf had published the English translation of his greatest work, "The Family Moskat." "The Certificate" is one posthumous work that deserved unearthing: sad yet warm, philosophical yet filled with contempt for all forms of fanaticism, especially the young Jewish communists who practice their politics with the exact same cultic obsessiveness of Hasidim. This lesser-known Singer is well worth reading.

The storyteller's storyteller tells his own story as a young man

This is a highly autobiographical fiction, and one of tremendous verve, energy and life. An early work of Singer it was published after he won the Nobel Prize. It contains many of the familiar themes of his work, including that of a search on the part of the narrator to make some sense of, and understand his own life. The poor young man who is the subject of the story arrives in Warsaw from the provinces where he has been dismissed as a teacher. And in typical Singer fashion he finds his way to survival through a series of relationships with three different women. One of these women has a certificate which the Zionists have reserved for her and her husband so that she can travel to Palestine. But the man she loves is supposedly already there and she needs a fictive husband . Thus David Bendiger the Singer alter ego main character of the book , receives a lifeline. In the course of the narrative Bendinger and the pining Minna marry but this does not bring them to the Promised Land. Bendinger's other connections with two other women also do not solve his problem. Other surprises in the book like the return from Russia of the writer's older brother who is also a respected writer, and the sudden appearance in Warsaw at the end of the work at their aging Rabbi father also contribute to the book's interestingness. Above all though it is the voice of the main character ironic and questioning, filled with dreams and wild imaginings, original in perceptions and questions which impels the story. Singer is a writer whose work lives line by line, and who can tell a story in a brief paragraph. As a narrator he just knows how to keep the reader curious, and his storytelling power is so strong it sweeps the reader along with it. Another quality which I deeply appreciate in Singer is his knowledge of the Jewish world. His deep feeling for this world even as he is contradicting and turning away from an Orthodox style of life also add to the dramatic tension of the work. One of the world's great storytellers in this work tells his the story of his early years in a truly enthralling and enjoyable way.

Portrait Of An Aspiring Writer As A Young Man

David Bendiger is at a crossroad in his life. He is 18-1/2 and like his brother, Ahron, he aspires to be a writer. David also has the opportunity to obtain a certificate of passage to Palestine, a British protectorate in 1922. The only catch is that if he had a wife entry into Palestine would be that much easier. David enters into a fictitious marriage with Minna, a woman from a well-to-do Jewish family living in Warsaw. Minna plans to reunite with her adored fiance in Palestine and then dissolve her union with David. Needless to say problems ensue._The Certificate_ is a splendid and engrossing story full of unexpected plot turns. It captures that moment in a young man's life when he is just becoming an adult and must make important decisions that will affect the rest of his life. In David's case he chooses to begin his writing career by endeavoring to have some of his writings published. Newly discovering women, he ponders about the kind of woman he will eventually marry. The son of an orthodox rabbi, David also faces a challenge to his Judaism and his belief in God when he meets two Communist women at a rooming house, as well as from Minna, a self-denying Jew. Even his beliefs and his value system, much of these derived from Spinoza, are shaken. Whether David finds a new life in Palestine or takes an altogether different road may be discovered by reading this small, but important and engrossing work in the I.B. Singer canon.

Wonderful Novel from a tremendous Author

A young man, who aspires to become a writer in Warsaw in 1922 gets caught up in issues of life, love, family, and politics. The times are chaotic and the future is uncertain. Social structures are changing, religon is under assault, and communism is on the rise.This is the background for this novel by nobel prize winner Isaac B. Singer. This largly autobiograpichal story paints a picture of a culture and time lost in the ashes of history. His memories are touching and deftly written. A good read for any who are interested in this tremendous author.

Passionate and sad account

David Bendiger is a penniless young man, willing to make a name for himself as a writer in Warsaw. But 1922 is a time of turmoil, war, anti-Semitism, the rise of communism, all of which deeply affecting a young generation that cannot find its place in society. More so for the Jewish community, torn itself between tradition and the new rationalism. David is a puppet in a world of chaos, who gets himself carried and involved in the lives of three women, each one of them with their own dilemma in life. Like in all his other works, I.B.Singer masters his depiction of human despair, love, greatness, and despicable existence.