Enemies by Isaac Bashevis Singer

First published:Sonim, de Geshichte fun a Liebe, 1966 (English translation, 1972)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Domestic realism

Time of plot: Mid-twentieth century

Locale: New York City and upstate New York

Principal characters

• Herman Broder, a young Jewish immigrant from Poland
• Tamar Rachel Broder, his first wife
• Yadwiga Pracz, his present wife
• Masha Tortshiner, his mistress
• Shifrah Puah Bloch, her mother
• Rabbi Milton Lampert, Herman’s wealthy employer

The Story:

On a summer morning, Herman Broder stirs from his troubled dreams, wondering if he is in Nazi-occupied Poland, perhaps in the hayloft where his parents’ servant girl, Yadwiga, concealed him in order to save his life. Then, fully awake, he realizes that he is in the apartment in Brooklyn that he shares with Yadwiga, whom he marries after learning of the deaths of his wife and his children.

Herman tells Yadwiga that he must make another of his overnight train trips to sell books. Actually, he remains in New York City, spending the day in the office of Rabbi Milton Lampert, for whom Herman works as a ghostwriter, and the night at the apartment of his mistress, Masha Tortshiner, and her mother, Shifrah Puah Bloch, who are also Holocaust survivors. Although Masha knows that Herman is married, her mother does not. She is determined to have Masha get a divorce from her husband, Leon, so that she can marry Herman.

One day, Shifrah Puah calls Herman’s attention to a notice in the newspaper asking him to telephone a certain number. When he makes the call, Herman finds himself speaking to the uncle of his first wife, Tamara, who, it seems, is alive and in New York. When Herman and Tamara are reunited, he is surprised to find her prettier than ever and considerably easier to get along with than she was in the past. Although Herman knows that he must choose between his two wives, he has to admit that he would like to keep them both, and the volatile Masha as well.

Herman’s trips to see Tamara arouse Masha’s suspicions, even though she does not guess that Herman’s first wife has come back from the dead. Herman thinks he might be able to reassure Masha about his feelings for her during a vacation in the Adirondack Mountains that they are planning. At first, they do relax and enjoy themselves, but then Masha tells Herman that she is pregnant. Taken by surprise, Herman rashly promises to marry Masha.

Blithely ignoring the fact that Herman is already married, which, after all, involves only a mere Gentile, Masha works on getting a divorce. Meanwhile, Herman’s other two relationships with women are becoming even more complicated. On an outing in the Catskill Mountains, he and Tamara, who were merely friends, find themselves making love and enjoying it. Then, Yadwiga decides that she can become closer to her husband if she converts to Judaism and gives him a Jewish child. Though he does not want to bring a child into a world so full of cruelty and suffering, Herman cannot refuse her.

Herman is still managing to keep the three women apart. However, he worries constantly about exposure, which he knows will cost him his job with the rabbi and might well lead to his being imprisoned or deported. He has a little time to decide about which of his present wives to keep, because he married Yadwiga in all innocence, believing Tamara to be dead. However, he will have no excuse, moral or legal, for acquiring a third wife.

Quite unexpectedly, Leon Tortshiner offers Herman a way out. He meets with Herman in order to warn him that Masha is a promiscuous, deceitful woman. Leon tells Herman that Masha was consistently unfaithful during their marriage and also that she betrayed Herman by sleeping with Leon as the price of obtaining her divorce. Herman’s immediate response is to end the relationship with Masha; however, she manages to convince him that it is Leon who is lying, and the two are married after all.

By the time winter arrives, Herman is in serious financial trouble. Yadwiga is expecting a baby, which means more bills in Brooklyn, and, after Masha’s pregnancy turns out to be purely psychological, she is too depressed to work, and so Herman has to provide all the support for the Bronx household as well. As a new convert to Judaism, Yadwiga is driving Herman crazy with her questions about a faith he no longer observes.

Finally, the inevitable happens. First, Tamara drops in at the Brooklyn apartment, and Yadwiga recognizes her. Then some neighbors bring a gossipy man named Nathan Pesheles to meet Mrs. Broder, and, though Tamara pretends to be Herman’s cousin, Pesheles takes a good look at Yadwiga. When Rabbi Lampert finds out that Herman recently married, he visits Masha and invites the newlyweds to a party. One of the rabbi’s guests is the observant Pesheles. He promptly informs Masha that he met a Tamara Broder at Herman’s apartment in Brooklyn, thus tipping her off to the fact that the dead wife is not dead, and then goes on to tell everyone else, including the rabbi, that, in addition to Masha, Herman also has a pretty, pregnant wife named Yadwiga.

Before the evening ends, the kindly rabbi offers Masha a job and both Masha and her mother a place to live. Masha accepts, telling Herman that she never wants to see him again. Tamara comes to Herman’s rescue, taking him in, giving him a job in her uncle’s bookstore, and even helping Yadwiga in any way she can.

Then, just when things are going well, Masha comes back into Herman’s life. Now she wants him again, and he agrees to run away with her. However, she is delayed, first by finding that her apartment is burglarized, then by her mother’s death. Herman and Masha consider a double suicide, but finally Herman decides to leave not only Masha but also everyone else.

Masha kills herself. Yadwiga moves in with Tamara, who runs the bookstore while Yadwiga takes care of their place and of her baby girl, little Masha. No one ever knows what happens to Herman.

Bibliography

Alexander, Edward. Isaac Bashevis Singer: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne, 1980. A thorough and insightful work. The chapter devoted to Enemies emphasizes the importance of the Holocaust in the novel and in Jewish intellectual history.

Farrell, Grace, ed. Critical Essays on Isaac Bashevis Singer. New York: G. K. Hall, 1996. Collection of essays, including pieces by literary critics Irving Howe, Susan Sontag, Alfred Kazin, John Bayley, and Leslie Fielder, providing numerous interpretations of Singer’s works. “Death by the Word: Victims of Language in Enemies: A Love Story” by Marilyn R. Chandler analyzes this novel.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Isaac Bashevis Singer: Conversations. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1992. A collection of interviews in which Enemies is frequently mentioned. Singer points out that he understands Herman Broder’s lack of belief in God but does not share his attitude.

Friedman, Lawrence S. Understanding Isaac Bashevis Singer. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1988. Shows how the novel reflects its post-Holocaust setting. The Jews who survived and immigrated to America had to deal with religious doubt, along with their loss of a common language and of a sense of community.

Hadda, Janet. Isaac Bashevis Singer: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Focusing on both the forces of family and the social environment that influenced Singer, Hadda uncovers the public persona to reveal a more complex man than previously understood.

Kresh, Paul. Isaac Bashevis Singer: The Magician of West Eighty-sixth Street. New York: Dial Press, 1979. An insightful critical biography. The brief but useful discussion of Enemies argues that Singer himself was the model for Herman Broder.

Lee, Grace Farrell. From Exile to Redemption: The Fiction of Isaac Bashevis Singer. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987. Systematically traces the development of Singer’s thought, classifying the late work Enemies as a story of redemption. Although Herman exiles himself from God, Yadwiga and Tamara affirm their faith by nurturing a Jewish child.

Noiville, Florence. Isaac B. Singer: A Life. Translated by Catherine Temerson. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. An informative biography written in concise, easy-to-read language. Noiville gleans information from interviews with Singer’s wife, son, friends, and colleagues, as well as from his autobiography, In My Father’s Court (1966). She focuses on Singer’s life struggles, his relationships with others, and the adversity he had to overcome as a Jewish writer.

Qiao, Guo Qiang. The Jewishness of Isaac Bashevis Singer. New York: Peter Lang, 2003. Analyzes the Jewishness in Singer’s work, finding a unique place for the writer within American Jewish literature. Focuses on Singer’s depiction of past and present Jewish assimilation in both Poland and the United States, examines Singer’s narrative strategies, and compares the Jewish identity and Jewish historical consciousness in works by Singer, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, and Philip Roth.

Wolitz, Seth L., ed. The Hidden Isaac Bashevis Singer. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001. A collection of essays, including discussions of Singer’s use of the Yiddish language and cultural experience, themes that persist throughout his writing, his interface with other times and cultures, his autobiographical work, and a translation of a previously unpublished “gangster” novel.