This novel is based on the historical occurrence of the appearance of the false messiah Sabbath Zevi and the mass following he generated. While the bare facts of the delusion may be true , I believe that the fleshing out of the characters, their thoughts and behaviour are a misrepresentation .
'Satan in Goray' is set in the mid Seventeenth Century , and yet strongly reflects the Twentieth , especially drawing on I.B. Singer's life and milieu .
It would be useful to read his autobiographical 'Love in Exile' together with the novel to see that Isaac Bashevis Singer had an axe to grind .
Singer's parents were pious , learned Jews , and young Isaac defected from the essence of his forbears' religion , as did many of his peers , while retaining the peripheral cultural artifacts and images which preoccupied his writings.
This loss of faith prejudiced him and thus in 'Satan in Goray' he depicts his ancestors as superstitious , foolish to the degree of lunacy , cruel and violent , filthy and uncouth, as well as emotionally and sexually out of control . The wisdom , kindness and beauty of his heritage are not shown in the novel which is a caricature of the worst character traits in man .I refuse to believe the people of the shtetl were anything like that ! The few wise scholars in the book are just mentioned as such but do not flourish nor triumph .They appear as absolutely impotent and irrelevant .
In the battle between good and evil , the evil is not defeated , it just collapses .The sect self destructs when Shabbatai converts to Islam .
Singer plugs his vegetarianism in a bloody depiction of ritual slaughter as a filthy orgy of violence . He depicts Jewish parenting as ruthlessly cruel beyond plain child abuse . Rechele's upbringing is just unbelievably nightmarishly cruel ! Jewish parenting is not like that !
Some may take pride in the award of a Nobel prize to Singer , but perhaps the Nobel committee was being ideological, by rewarding and promoting the denigration of Jewry as well as the rejection of core Jewish values .
