For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories | 
|  | | | Title: | For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories | | Author: | Nathan Englander | | Publisher: | Vintage | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 21 March, 2000 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0375704434 / 9780375704437 | | List Price: | $13.95 | | You Save: | $2.79 | | Amazon Price: | $11.16 | |
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Product Description
One of the most stunning literary debuts of our time, these energized, irreverent, and deliciously inventive stories introduce an astonishing new talent.
In the collection's hilarious title story, a Hasidic man gets a special dispensation from his rabbi to see a prostitute. "The Wig" takes an aging wigmaker and makes her, for a single moment, beautiful. In "The Tumblers," Englander envisions a group of Polish Jews herded toward a train bound for the death camps and, in a deft, imaginative twist, turns them into acrobats tumbling out of harm's way.
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is a work of startling authority and imagination--a book that is as wondrous and joyful as it is wrenchingly sad. It hearalds the arrival of a remarkable new storyteller.
Amazon.com Review
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is an astonishment. Whether Nathan Englander is creating the last days of 27 condemned Soviet writers or the first in which a Park Avenue lawyer finds religion (in a taxi, no less), his gift is everywhere in evidence. Englander's specialty is the collision of Jewish law and tradition with secular realities, whether in Brooklyn, Tel Aviv, or Stalinist Russia. In one tale, a wigmaker from an ultra-orthodox Brooklyn enclave journeys into Manhattan for supplies and, more importantly, inspiration--frequenting a newsstand where she pays for the right to flip through forbidden fashion magazines. If all Ruchama wants to do is be beautiful again and momentarily free of communal constraints, others ask only to survive. In "The Tumblers," set in World War II Poland (with a metafictional twist), followers of the Mahmir Rebbe get into a train filled with circus performers rather than into a cattle car. Their only chance is to camouflage themselves as part of the troupe: Their acceptance as acrobats was a stretch, a first-glance guess, a benefit of the doubt granted by circumstance and only as valuable as their debut would prove. It was an absurd undertaking. But then again, Mendel thought, no more unbelievable than the reality from which they'd escaped, no more unfathomable than the magic of disappearing Jews. Another story, "Reb Kringle," is almost breezy by comparison. Each year, one Brooklynite dreads his holiday job from hell, playing Santa Claus in a Manhattan department store: "There were elves posted on each side of Itzik; one--a humorless, muscular midget--wore a pair of combat boots that gave him the look of elf-at-arms. His companion might have been a twin. He wore black high-tops but had the same vigilant paramilitary demeanor." Itzik can put up with the children's accidents and greed, with his sciatica, and even with a mischief maker's attempt to cut off his beard. But when one boy admits that what he really wants to do is celebrate Hanukkah, "the infamous Reb Santa" loses it. Though this is undoubtedly the collection's lightest piece--proof positive that you have to be a saint to be a Jewish Santa--it is no less piercing an examination of identity and obligation than Englander's more heavyweight entries. --Kerry Fried
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Customer Reviews:
• Unique Story Collection 04 June, 2006
Nathan Englander has an incredible way with words. The stories in this collection have an abundance of deft characterizations and shrewd observations, making "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" a pleasurable read that immerses you in the culture of orthodox Judaism with grace and delicacy. Englander also displays a knack for changing tones without jarring the reader too much; going from the tragic "The Twenty-Seventh Man" to the metaphysical "Tumblers" and to the comical "Reb Kringle" (about a Jewish man who takes on seasonal work as a department store Santa for his family's sake) feels smooth and natural when the stories could have easily made the collection feel disjointed. Best of all is Englander's keen ability to put the reader into the heads of people who have lived in orthodox Jewish communities their whole lives. As someone who was raised Catholic it was very interesting to get such a detailed peek into another world and another way of life. My favorite thing about reading has always been that it allows you to experience new ideas and cultures, and "Urges" is a great example of a book that fits that criteria. So so what if the collection is a little uneven? Englander's errors are easily forgivable, and his stories are still good reads.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AAIL33CYCT47J
• Satisfaction 02 June, 2008
A book ordered through Amazon.com includes:
A simple questionaire
An immediate reply
A wonderful price (0.26$!!!)
A very fast shippment
A very safe envelope
An excellent condition of a hard cover copy.
What else can one ask?
Thank you!
And thank you Nathan Englander for your books.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3PK50ND8GKBJ4
• The Opening Story Is Stunning 01 September, 2008
The opening story was startling--I've never read anything like it. It wasn't the tone or the voice that startled--they were familiar in the way that Malamud sounds familiar, in the way that a distant relative you've seen only once before sounds familiar when he tells you a story about your father as a kid in New Jersey. But what happened in the story--the actual story, was so clever and sad and original, that it was hard to turn away.
There are many stories like this in the collection. The story about the wig . . . ah, well, I shouldn't say more. And then there are a couple of stories that couldn't hold me in the same way--I skimmed through them and moved on to the great ones. As a whole, a truly remarkable collection.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1QXNP7RFQKTS9
• A Big Advance Book... And Probably Worth The Six Figures 07 June, 2007
Much has been written about what works in this collection of short stories, so I will dwell on what does not. The final story in the collection, In This Way We Are Wise, seems like some unnecessary coda and hardly fits into the themes and tone of the rest of the collection. After so much Singer without the sexual psychosis, and so much Malmudian tenseness, it was as if Englander wanted to throw in a bit of old fashioned realism to show us he can do it. Unfortunately, the piece falls flat; it is mired in the obvious and trite, and is a poor ending to a powerful collection. But even some of the other pieces, which are far more successfully executed, appear to have a truncated sense of something missing, especially in their conclusion. Reunion starts with great promise, with a gradual unfolding of character and drama, only to end in speech making in front of a Brooklyn brownstone. Reb Krinkle, a story with a hilarious premise and laugh out loud dialogue, ends rather abruptly and unsatisfactorily with a thin paragraph which lacks wit or pathos. It is as if Englander, being prepped for sainthood and literary fame, is rushing through to the ending, to run as fast as he can, to get his piece between the slim covers of American Short Fiction, the Atlantic, The New Yorker, and Story. And to do that, you have to end a story, right, even if you don't want to? Even if it feels wrong
- Reviewed by customer ID: A11DCTGTPS7M0C
• The Most Elegant Of Books 21 April, 2007
It's hard to put into words how beautiful and compelling I find Mr. Englander's work, and this, his first effort, is my all-time favorite short story collection.
In the first story, a group of 26 condemned writers in Stalinist Russia converse about writing on their final day on Earth. A woman looking to recapture her fading good looks buys the beautiful hair of a young man and fashions it into a beautiful and expensive wig for one day of glorious attention. Turning to her electrolosyst for help, a desperate woman seeks a divorce from her abusive and hostile husband through any means necessary. A middle-aged man has an epiphany in the back of a taxi and converts to orthodox Juadaism, trying his long-suffering wife's patience. A young rabbi, hungry for physical affection receives a dispensation "for the relief of unbearable urges" and spends the night with a prostitute, with horrific consequences for him and his young wife.
This selection went through 13 hardcover printings--unheard of for American short stories. It will float in your hands, it is not to be missed. The stories are captivating and lyrical, Englander being wise beyond his years. I wish I could say more, but I cannot--it is just beautiful, and is worth your time whether you usually read short stories or not.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2WH6X4VBGRCXI
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