Singer is a master storyteller, a weaver of tales and parables revolving primarily around European Jewish society. His characters live in a world of demons, dybbuks, harpies, incantations, ritual ablutions, amulets, yeshivas, mezuzahs, and Shibtahs. Many of them reside in the twentieth century but abide by customs, rituals, and superstitions as old as recorded time. And all of them are affected, in varying degrees, by one of man's basic instincts: lust.

[In the stories collected in Old Love], Singer evokes exotic and erotic images. In addition, there is always his undercurrent of humor—a light and subtle touch that displays his genuine affection for the common mortals he portrays and their common frailties….

Singer likes to entice his readers much like his characters entice each other. "Two Weddings and One Divorce" begins with a beautiful lure: "One day in autumn, a shoemaker's apprentice committed suicide on Krochmalna Street...