Two lines of criticism emerge about the winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for literature. Many have praised Singer, who always wrote in Yiddish, as the last great storyteller, especially in the tradition of Yiddish storytellers. Stefan Kanfer's 1991 obituary for Singer in Time, in fact, highlights the author's lofty position in many critics' minds with its title, "The Last Teller of Tales." The other strain of criticism, according to Dan Miron in Judaism, showed itself in the "servings of envy and hatred that [Singer] received from the rapidly shrinking Yiddishist cultural establishment." Abraham Bezanker, writing in Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction, also notes that Singer's "reception by his kinsmen is somewhat less admiring" than that of English-speaking and American readers.

R. Barbara Gitenstein, writing in the Reference Guide to American Literature, notes that Singer's treatment of "sexuality and insanity alienated him from many of his Yiddish readers...