“Having read widely I would say the greatest Jewish writer of the frum world of literature is
1. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov – his stories border on mystical fantasy and create amazing worlds full of beggars with super powers, lost princesses, evil cults etc.”
Having just finished reading an English translation of the collected stories of Rabbi Nachman, I have to disagree.
The stories are long, complex, and feature many characters, almost all unnamed, and sub-sub-subplots. It is extremely difficult to keep track of who’s who and what’s what. I found myself frequently flipping back a few pages to remind myself where I was in the story. This is a structural issue, so I really don’t think it would be any easier to get through in the original Yiddish (and besides which, the translators wrote an extended introduction basically saying that every word of Rabbi Nachman’s is precious and meaningful and therefore they didn’t change anything). Sure, the fantasy stuff is fun, but not if you can’t actually understand it.