Enemies, a Love Story

by Isaac Bashevis Singer | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0374515220 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Charly83 of Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Germany on 12/29/2007
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4 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Charly83 from Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Germany on Saturday, December 29, 2007
Amost before he knows it, Herman Broder, refugee and survivor of World War II, has three wives: Yadwiga, the Polish peasant who hid him from the Nazis; Masha, his beautiful and neurotic true love; and Tamara, his first wife, miraculously returned from the dead. Herman navigates a crowded, Yiddish New York with a sense of perpetually impending doom.

Journal Entry 2 by Charly83 at Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Germany on Thursday, March 24, 2011

Released 13 yrs ago (3/24/2011 UTC) at Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Germany

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Das Buch macht sich als Rabck per Post auf die Reise nach Cottbus.

Journal Entry 3 by Jotka at Cottbus, Brandenburg Germany on Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Thank you very much. I've received all the books today. My TBR-pile is now almost 1 meter high.
08.05.2011
I have to say that I've read this book but without pleasure. "Not my cup of tee". It was impossible for me to like any of characters. Not only Herman Broder but also his three wives and other people are really unsympathetic. It's possible that I haven't understood this book. The survivors from holocaust speak and think all the time about their memories. I don't know if it should explain their behaviour or on the contrary - show that they are people like the others. People really don't need war, holocaust or Stalinism to lie, betray, quarrel... or to help each other.
Nevertheless - I'm going to send this book to the winner of Mai Verlosung (http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/14/456790).

Journal Entry 4 by Jotka at Cottbus, Brandenburg Germany on Monday, May 9, 2011

Released 12 yrs ago (5/9/2011 UTC) at Cottbus, Brandenburg Germany

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Das Buch ist unterwegs. Ich hoffe, dass Du mehr Spaß beim Lesen haben wirst, als ich.

Journal Entry 5 by wingMary-Twing at Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg Germany on Monday, May 16, 2011
Thanks Jotka! :)
Don't know if it is my cup... but when I opened it, I liked first the language! And it seems to be interesting! I will definately try it. Let's see what I think of them.
Maybe the enemies can accompany me to the US in June....

17-August-11
Well - I didn't like the characters of this story neither.
And mostly I didn't understand Tamara since I see Hermann as really a pitiful and poor person. He seems not to be able to handle his life and is just floating from one place to the other without any own will. And the only decision and/or action he can take or think of at his own accord is to flee in suicide... I don't like that and I would never want to live with this kind of person.
This was a more strange than a love story. Really strange.

Journal Entry 6 by wingMary-Twing at Cheesecake Factory in Raleigh, North Carolina USA on Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Released 12 yrs ago (8/20/2011 UTC) at Cheesecake Factory in Raleigh, North Carolina USA

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I'll take this to a meeting with Megi53.
If she don't like to read it I will release it somewhere in the Crabtree Valley Mall.

Journal Entry 7 by Megi53 at Raleigh, North Carolina USA on Sunday, August 21, 2011
I started to flip through this as soon as I got home from Raleigh. Although I've seen Isaac Bashevis Singer books for young people, I'd never heard of this title before, so I was very curious about it.

Herman seemed like a sad-sack, stereotyped 1950s traveling salesman. It made me angry when he and his other two "wives" made fun of Yadwiga; and that Herman wouldn't let her have children. Yadwiga and Shifrah Puah were unique characters, at least, but unfortunately the main protagonists disdained them.

I found a little origami bird between the pages. What a nice surprise!

Journal Entry 8 by Megi53 at Danville, Virginia USA on Thursday, September 15, 2011
This had some fine philosophical observations in the early pages. I loved Herman's instinct theory, especially when he applied it to Yadwiga's pet parakeets. I loved the rabbi's admonition to Herman that he was "of this world" as long as he ate, drank, and went to the toilet.

Tamara taking over her relatives' bookstore was wonderful! But that was when "our hero", Herman, really began to go downhill. (spoilers coming) He was late to unlock the bookstore and lost Tamara a good sale. He ran out on Yadwiga when she was almost ready to give birth. He connived to make the rabbi pay for everything Masha wanted. All Herman and Masha talked about for the last several chapters was suicide.

Several (too many) incongruous characters kept ranting and raving about Stalin at odd times. I call this "Sea-Wolf Syndrome" because authors like Jack London use it to propagandize via their book characters.

Well, I didn't like Gimpel or Todie in Singer's short stories. What made me think I might like Herman?

This is a beautifully-made book; I'll try to find another reader for it soon.


Journal Entry 9 by Megi53 at Alamance Crossing in Burlington, North Carolina USA on Sunday, September 25, 2011

Released 12 yrs ago (9/17/2011 UTC) at Alamance Crossing in Burlington, North Carolina USA

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Released on a shopping trip last week; don't recall exact location (Alamance Crossing is huge!

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