Tuesday 24th November 2009
by Caroline
The Manor describes life in the Polish village of Jampol after the occupying Russian government allows the Jews to move from their segregated settlements. Protagonist Calman Jacoby leases a manor left vacant by the overthrown aristocracy in Jampol and the book follows his expanding and deteriorating quality of life.
Singer recreates the conflict between the conservative and liberal Jews, especially over the behavior of women and whether or not the Jewish populace should assimilate to blend into Polish society. Calman’s relatively young wife dies after wasting away for many years, and he remarries to a young, shrewd widow with her eye on Calman’s business. She stands in for her imagined future of Polish Jews, speaks Polish, visits the beauty parlor, and carries on a completely separate life from her husband’s.
The power of Singer’s character development shone when I found myself rooting for Calman in his fights with his new wife over her style of dress, refusal to partake of ritual baths and other religious rites, and wanton spending — he despairs over her religious uncleanliness and can’t bring himself to eat the food he isn’t sure is kosher. At the same time, his family begins abandoning him, on one side because he is too conservative and religious, and on the other side because his new wife is too liberal.
Calman keeps to himself and is religiously conservative, but he lives the word of God in his works: supporting the poor, striving to help his community and other Jews, and reflecting on his financial prosperity through a lens of self-effacement and skepticism. He is a frog brought to a boil, but once it happens he does not hesitate to give up everything he has in order to make his life right again in the eyes of God.
A rational skeptic in the book comments, “People cling to life as though it were all marzipan and rose water.” Calman’s estate is in direct proportion to his level of suffering, and the marzipan-and-rose-water days flit away along with his fancily dressed second wife; neither he nor the rational skeptic respect the frippery of their temporal environs. The difference lies in the way each man reacts to his feelings: Calman’s life revolves around serious Jewish religious ritual and devotion, keeping him as busy as his frivolous wife but with far greater aims.
On translation
Isaac Bashevis Singer was a major proponent of literature written in Yiddish because he felt the language had a unique way of expressing emotions and experiences related to Jewish life. His works were translated into English with fastidious care and devotion and with Singer’s enthusiastic cooperation. From the Library of Congress:
From the cuts and changes Singer made during the process of translation, it is clear that he was keenly aware of the different literary, cultural, and religious perspectives of his new audience. In many ways the translated versions were new works, and he soon referred to these English versions as his “second originals.”
Singer’s vegetarianism
Singer became a vegetarian and stayed such for the last 35 years of his life, including the time when he wrote and published The Manor. The book contains a thoughtful passage on the ritual slaughter of a chicken during Yom Kippur, when Calman’s rabbi son-in-law Jochanan objects inwardly to what he views as a cruel tradition. This subject is debated with intensity.
For more on the Cannonball Read, see Pajiba.
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