Singer - the gentleman from Cracow

Not as great a story as gimpel the fool because you can pretty much see where it's headed from the outset but the gentleman from Cracow by I b singer is a classic of the genre: a stranger comes to town. In this case a wealthy widowed doctor arrives in the tiny polish village that is suffering through drought and poverty and brings or seems to offer a kind of salvation - first by spending an extraordinary amount of money and thereby getting the whole economy rolling again - a federal stimulus program! - and then by arranging a dress ball that will pair off all of the eligible young men and women, including himself, in some weird random fashion. As the event ends in a debauchery it becomes evident that he's a devil incarnate - and I guess the message is beware of false messiahs including secular ones - tho i still think his economic program was a good one.

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