The Death of Methuselah and Other Stories

By Isaac Bashevis Singer

Book Overview

Twenty stories from the Nobel Prizewinner, including "Disguised," a transvestite tale of the yeshiva student whose deserted wife finds him dressed as a woman and married to a man, and the title story, which portrays Methuselah at the age of 969 -- "and when you pass your nine hundredth birthday, you are not what you used to be."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374135630
• ISBN13: 9780374135638
• Release Date: April 1988
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.6" x 1.1" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Worth it for the Title Story Alone

The Death of Methuselah, the title story, is one of the best short stories I've ever read. It deals with the hallucinatory last moments of Methuselah. The reader is taken taken on a trip through Jewish and Mesopotamian mythology, a trip brought on by Methuselah's lusting for Naamah the she-devil, consort of Asmodeus.

METHUSELAH'S CHILDREN

Master story teller Isaac Bashevis Singer regales us once again with this remarkable collection of short stories. Woe to those who are faint of heart or have inflexible moral standards. His stories are sure to give you a coronary as you are confronted with issues of blasphemy, debauchery, mystery and intrigue. Singer assaults the whole of human fickleness in his tales. Yet his tales are not all sordid. In "The Bitter Truth" we see a man's loyalty to his friend over-rides a secret that could spell disaster. "House Friend" will have you laughing at the mere concept of a friend having sexual relations with another friend's wife with full hearted encouragement from the friend. Go figure? Singer's stories are down to earth and deal with the varied human negativities that we display unashamedly. God's presence is very much in the foreground of the stories as the characters stuggle with their own ethical isssues. Despite the fact that we as a human race can be sordid, the collection as a whole points out that we are redeemable and can display the best of ourselves. Laugh, cry, become shocked and fearful as you enter the complexities of humanity through the eyes of Singer. No collection of his is complete without this book.