Singer's enchanting short stories, reminiscent of Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and Sholem Aleichem, are imaginative folk tales, told with simplicity, and reveal his true literary genius. Using ghosts and supernatural ideas and following the "dybuk" (possession by the devil) of Ansky's Yiddish play The Dybuk, Singer weaves stories that will be passed down from generation to generation.

"Gimpel the Fool," Singer's most famous short story, was originally translated from the Yiddish by Saul Bellow in 1953. Gimpel is the archetype of the fall guy, the humorous, yet pathetic, luckless individual who falls prey to mean tricks played on him by his townspeople. He is so gullible, trusting and sincere that he is beloved as the town fool.

Gimpel, however, is a fool who knows what foolishness is, and while he may be ridiculed and may seem ridiculous even to the reader, he is Singer's symbol of the...