One of the most stunning literary debuts of our time, these energized, irreverent, and deliciously inventive stories introduced an astonishing 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 collection that is as wondrous and joyful as it is wrenchingly sad. It's the work of a remarkable storyteller.
