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HAROLD U. RIBALOW
Devils, Jews and I. B. Singer
Reflections on a Nobel Prize Winner
N
a f t a l i
,
o n e
o f
the more pleasant characters in an Isaac Bashevis
Singer story ,1is amazed tha t writers make up stories. He tells Reb
Zebulun, in a shocked voice, “They are liars.”
Reb Zebulun replies (and bea r in m ind tha t this passage ap
pears in a tale told fo r ch ild ren2) : “They are no t liars. T h e hum an
brain really can’t make up a thing. At times I read a story tha t
seems to me completely unbelievable, bu t I come to some place
and I hea r th a t such a th ing actually happened . T h e brain is
created by God, and hum an though ts and fantasies are also God’s
works. Even dreams come from God. I f a th ing doesn’t happen
today, it m ight easily happ en tomorrow. I f no t in one country,
then in ano ther . T h e re are endless worlds and what doesn’t
happen on ea r th can happen in ano ther world.”3
Singer remains consistent in his belief tha t any th ing man can
imagine may possibly happen .
In the course o f an interview with him which I conducted in
1976,4 here is an exchange which took place between us abou t a
controversial story, “Blood,” about which I po in t out, “Critics say,
‘T h e re never was a shochet who killed animals in o rd e r to obtain
satisfaction.’”
Singer replies, “How does the reade r know the re never was a
shochet like this? Do you know tha t there is a story in Jewish life
1 In
Naftali, the Storyteller and His Horse, Sus,
1976.
2 In
When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories,
1968, Singer writes in a
prefatory note, “In my writing there is no basic difference between tales for
adults and for young people. The same spirit, the same interest in the super
natural is in all o f them.”
3
Naftali, the Storyteller and His Horse, Sus.
4 An abbreviated version was published in
Midstream,
January 1979. The longer
interview will appear in a book o f interviews which I conducted with nine Jewish
novelists, to be published later this year by A.S. Barnes.