friday, february 9, 1979
page 8
daily nebraskan
A uthor's search for God continues in latest novel
By William Regier
Isaac Bashevis Singer's A Young Man in
Search of Love (Doubleday) resumes the
autobiography begun by A Little Boy in
Search of God (1976). America's most re
cent Nobel laureate grows up a little in this
book, though the object of his search, de
spite the title, is still God.
Singer's path winds through the Warsaw
ghetto between World Wars. He is a
member of a writer's club and made livid
by the success of his big brother, Israel.
Israel offers Isaac money, but he proudly
refuses it. Kept by a woman twice his age,
Isaac can afford his pride. But she sickens,
he leaves her and ponders both the God
and the prose style he fervently desires.
Speaking an imperfect Polish, he was
able to pick up some English words and
phrases. The word "prosperity" was
adopted by Yiddish, Singer's native lan
guage. He picked up "split personality,"
"inferiority complex," and remembers,
"As soon as I read of : . me phobia or neu
rosis, I immediately acquired it."
Prayed for a room
In the meantime he prayed most urgent
ly, first for his stories to be published, then
for a private room. He became aware of
America through The Jewish Daily
Forward, a New York Yiddish newspaper
that paid contributors well.
He translated Thomas Mann's Magic
Mountain into Yiddish, though the book
bored him. It was a work "for critics, not
readers." All the while he was certain that
until he knew the essence of eternity, all he
did was "sheer futility."
He was anti-feminist because modern
women were "amazingly like me." A wo
man, pregnant by another man, offered to
buy his way out of military conscription if
he would marry her. It seemed a good deal
to Isaac. She told him, "God cursed the
female gender. He is an even greater anti-
feminist than Otto Weininger and Strind
berg." People drop by every few pages to re
store Isaac to his sidewalk theology. Stefa,
former rich miss, declares, "If He exists,
then He is a comedian." Isaac quotes ap
propriate scripture. She laughs.
Warm mush
Isaac, even in his twenties, was impa
tient to reduce universal complexity to his
own image. God "wants love (as I do) re
gardless of whether He has earned it. He
frequently punishes His creatures but He
demands that they forgive Him and
acknowledge that all His intentions are of
the best." This is followed by more com
forting anthropomorphism, warm mush.
The Spinoza of Market Street, one of
Singer's best known characters, knew
Spinoza's Ethics by heart. Singer's auto
biography pays frequent homage to the
same murdered philosopher, and records
Singer's reading of Kant, Schopenhauer,
Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Neitzsche. The
Book of Deuteronomy, he then thought,
was "the wisest work ever created by
man."
When not exhorting the deaf heavens,
Singer's book stays strictly autobiograph
ical. The reader learns little about the War
saw ghetto; Schocken's "Holocaust
Library" portrays that mantrap far more
completely. But Singer's lifelong distrust
of Marxists is explained by his observation
that Jewish factory workers were "a
species that hardly existed."
Searching for love
A Young Man in Search of Love begins
with Isaac in the arms of a woman; it ends
with a lost love returning to him. In be
tween, his success with women (redheaded
heartbreaker that he was) is mentioned
without boasting or indecorous detail. His
affairs seem to have been frequent and
they fatigued him. His search for love was
irresolute and inconclusive.
Isaac's steadiest job was as a proof
reader, though he wasn't very good at it.
Neither are the proofreaders at Double
day, which causes special problems with
this book. It is spiced with numerous
Yiddish words that few gentiles are likely
to know: dyhhuk, Aralim, Chamsin, shtctl,
tosaphist.
How many have heard of Shechina,
God's female counterpart? When one reads
"an anthema" (for "anathema"),
"heresay" (for "heresy"), and Yiddish
iolioms" (for "Yiddish idioms") one may
suspect more Yiddish yet.
A Young Man in Search of Love is a
short book with fat print and abundant
color illustrations. It may convince you
that you read last. It won't alter the opin
ion that Singer's best writing is fiction.
Movies booked on chance
By Doug Hull
Outguessing the Lincoln movie-going
public takes luck and a sense of what in
gredients have worked before in a movie,
said a local theatre company owner.
David Livingston, vice-president and as
sistant buyer for the Douglas Theatre Co.,
said booking the right movie to gain a
profit often is based on chance.
"I'm afraid more often than not it's
guess work," Livingston said. "If you see a
Burt Reynolds or a Barbra Streisand, it can
up the ante."
Livingston said the method theatre
owners use most frequently to book films
is "blind bidding."
Theatre owners receive a notice three to
12 months in advance of a film release,
Livingston said. The notice contains the
name, release date, actors, director and
producer of the film.
Livingston said theatre owners bid on'
the film being offered, but none know
what the others have bid. The theatre
owner who offers the highest bid runs the
picture for an agreed amount of time.
Popularity factor
A rental agreement for a film can run an
average of six weeks, depending on a film's
popularity, Livingston said. The rental
agreement for a film is made with the
movie company's distributor.
Livingston said a movie company rents
its films at a guaranteed minimum rate, or
at 70 to 90 percent of the theatre's first
week's sales, whichever is the highest.
This year, a film not yet released, The
China Syndrome is an example of a bid de
cision made because of a director's past
performance, Livingston said. The film is
directed by Michael Douglas, who also di
rected One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.
Livingston said UNL students weigh
heavily on the program decisions made by
the Douglas Theatre Co. He said that
studies show the average movie-goers to be
in their early 20's.
Busy holidays
The busiest seasons for theatre owners
are Christmas and the Fourth of July.
During these periods theatre owneis
assume the films released are the "creani of
the crop," he ssaid.
Sarge Dubinsky, president of Dubinsky
Bros. Theatres, said his decisions on movie
bids also are based on luck.
"Anyone who thinks it's not guess work
doesn't know the business," he said.
"You weigh everything: cast, title, pro
ducer, everything you have," Dubinsky
said. "A theatre owner has no idea how
popular a film will be."
Dubinsky said Animal House and The
Goodbye Girl are two films which were
surprisingly successful when first released.
"If you rank pictures from one to 10,
you're invariably going to be wrong," he
said.
Being wrong can add up to a dollar loss
for theatre owners, according to Dubinsky.
He said theatre owners with larger funds
can absorb the losses, but in some situa
tions "theatre owners must remember that
it is a seller's market."
Dubinsky said a deal known as a "split"
can be made among exhibitors. Theatre
owners agree to divide the movies which
are up for bidding, and each owner bids
without competition, he said.
Although the legality of splitting has
been questioned, Dubinsky said, most legal
cases have supported it.
Students foresake best sellers for fascinating textbooks
By Mary Fastenau
The New York Times may have to
worry that their best seller book list will
soon have a replacement-UNL's own
Version.
Students are replacing the New York
Times 'winning book Chesapeake with such
books ds College Algebra and Chemistry: A
Modern Introduction.
It is difficult to single out one book as
the top bestseller, but Jerry Mullinix, text
book manager of the Nebraska Bookstore,
said the books for Speech 109, Sociology
153, Chemistry 109, Math 100 and 106
and Life Science 101 contend for the top
spot.
At University Bookstore, Cheryl Davis,
supply clerk, said textbooks for Economics
210, Life Science 101, Math 100, Account
ing 103 and Educational Psychology 216
are their bestsellers.
Little synopsis
If you are interested in buying one of
these top books, a little synopsis may be
helpful.
Mentioned by both stores was the Math
100 book. 411 pages by Beckenbaugh,
Drooyan and Wooton, entitled College
Algebra. The reason for the book's popu
larity may be the tear-out pages in the back
which give you a chance to rate the book
and then mail your evaluation, postage
paid.
The graphic gray, white and black
design on the cover with a large "A" near
the bottom, could fool the average
reader into thinking it was not a textbook.
The contents, printed in basic black, with
brown highlights, would, however, remind
the reader of the book's purpose.
Biology seller
Both stores also rate Biology, the Unity
and Diversity of Life, by Kirk, Taggart and
Starr as a top seller. Full-color pictures and
illustrations must be the reason for the
high volume of sales, though some may
argue the book is a hit because it is
required for Life Sciences 101.
Another widely read science book,
according to Nebraska Bookstore, is Chem
istry: A Modern Introduction. This book
must be directed toward people who like
to get to the subject in a hurry as the front
cover contains a scientific-looking struc
ture and there is a periodic chart before
you even open the first page.
This book is new this year and expected
to remain in the best sellers because it is
used for two chemistry classes, the text
book manager said.
Proven winner
A proven money maker for University
Bookstore is Economics, Principles,
Problems and Politics which is used for
three economics classes. This 954-page
book, which has been used through the
years, is now in its seventh edition.
It appears that the book is widely read
in Nebraska because the author, Campbell
R. McConnell, is an economics professor at
UNL. Nebraskans once again show pride in
their state by making this book a bestseller.
If you've read an economics book, you
may have also been exposed to Elementary
Accounting, 988 pages of graphs, figures
and tables. If students get impatient with
this book, which is used for two
accounting classes, they should read the
dedication. The authors write. "To our
wives, Dorthy, Beatrice, Maple for their
patience, understanding and inspiration."
Black and white
The book used for Sociology 153, en
titled Sociology by Robertson, may also be
inspirational because its black and white
pr ographs show all kinds of people doing
all kinds of things. This book also contains
seven white pages in the back, wnich ap
pear to be reserved for autographs.
People pictures are also a big part of Hu
man Communication, A Revision of Ap
proaching SpeechCommunication, the re
quired reading for Speech 109. This book
contains such interesting shots as people
hugging tombstones, loading a dishwasher
and watching television. The black cover
appears to have no effect on book sales or
leave people with a sense of gloom.
The black on white, black on white,
black on white pages of Thomas's Calcu
lus and Analytical Geometry may cause
gloomy feelings for some people, but that
repetition of black appears to be the popu
lar style in math books. This book is a re
cord setter, not only in terms of sales but
in number of pages with 1,034, making it
the longest book in the UNL bestseller
list.
The only paperback on the list is El
kind's Children and Adolescents, used in
Educational Psychology 261. The only
color in this book is the bright green of the
cover, but it appears most people can en
dure 186 pages of basic material.
i I
d a i i . ii l r Photo courtesy of Bob Thurber
Romeo and Juliet will be performed bv Thp ',rtin r .
Kimball Recital Hall. P V 'iC,mg (omPany toneht a' P "