I read Satan in Goray by Isaac Bashevis Singer — and left it in Illinois for my mother when I was visiting. She suffers from serious dementia, but expressed excitement about this book and wanted to read it. It’s set in 17th-century Poland — during the aftermath of a catastrophic massacre of the Jews. Messiahs and Devils abound in this book amid the 17th century music Singer has miraculously composed. My mother was born in a similar place in this vicinity. My mother told me her mother died of fear. They were all terribly mad.
Year in Reading
A Year in Reading: Diane Williams
By Diane Williams posted at 6:44 am on December 3, 2009 1
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at 5:07 pm on December 15, 2009
[...] 2009 reading experience. The contributors give a range of responses, from Diane Williams’s prose-poem ode for Satan in Goray to William H. Gass’s short essay on the out-of-print Pleasure of Ruins. [...]