The stories collected in A Day of Pleasure are more than autobiographical sketches or memoirs. They reveal the vivid imagination and intellectual curiosity, the conflicts and dilemmas of a sensitive boy brought up under trying circumstances in an environment at once fertile and threatening. Isaac's love of adventure moves him to explore the city and the countryside around Warsaw in ways that, for a person of his age and background, are both dangerous and daring. But in every instance, the author shows the boy trying to learn from his experiences, to relate them to important ethical, religious, or ethnic issues.

Singer offers acute perceptions, such as Isaac's grasp of worldly vanities in "The Satin Coat," his appreciation of the exceptional virtues of Reb Asher the Dairyman, and his understanding of the unfortunate situation of Reb Meir the Eunuch.

Singer originally wrote his stories in Yiddish, the...