“Peek into Isaac Bashevis Singer’s fictional universe and it is easy to see why so many still take offense. Singer’s characters, nearly all Jews, curse and covet and commit adultery. They impersonate demons or invoke them. They are superstitious, provincial, desirous. Nearly everything forbidden by Jewish law and custom is done by one character or another… Now, with the publication of three encyclopedic volumes of Singer’s short stories by the Library of America, and with lectures and readings honoring the centennial of his birth this year, another opportunity is being offered to take the measure of those transgressions.”