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Book
Isaac Bashevis Singer · 1960
A novel about Yasha Mazur, a renowned magician in Lublin, Poland, who leads a double life balancing his unconventional lifestyle and skepticism of religious tradition with his marriage to the devoted Esther. The narrative explores themes of morality, faith, and human desire through Singer's characteristic blend of realism and spiritual inquiry.
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What this book knows
A man who can escape every lock cannot escape himself: desire, faith, and identity collapse into one another until only a walled cell remains.
self-and-identity
He was a maze of personalities—religious and heretical, good and evil, false and sincere. He could love many women at once.
MLI-RC-035Daydreams of harem girls, slaves, tricks beyond nature … In his imagination he even led the Jews out of exile, rebuilt the temple of Jerusalem.
MLI-RC-037faith-and-doubt
He had worked out his own religion. There was a Creator, but He revealed Himself to no one … Those who spoke in His name were liars.
MLI-RC-004'What if I became an ascetic and had myself bricked into a cell … Would you give me food through a slit in the wall?'
MLI-RC-015desire
Emilia demanded that he sacrifice everything: his home, his religion … No, I must end the thing, he told himself, and the sooner the better.
MLI-RC-008After the long absence … they had grown apart and had to reacquaint themselves. It was like a wedding night.
MLI-RC-0246 published passages · book excerpt · research analysis
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