Synopses & Reviews
One of America& #39; s foremost novelists and critics, Cynthia Ozick has< br=""> won praise and provoked debate for taking on challenging literary, < br=""> historical, and moral issues. Her new collection of spirited essays focuses< br=""> on the essential joys of great literature, with particular emphasis on the< br=""> novel. With razor-sharp wit and an inspiring joie de vivre, she investigates< br=""> unexpected byways in the works of Leo Tolstoy, Saul Bellow, Helen< br=""> Keller, Isaac Babel, Sylvia Plath, Susan Sontag, and others. In a posthumous< br=""> and hilariously harassing & quot; (Unfortunate) Interview with Henry< br=""> James, & quot; Ozick& #39; s hero is shocked by a lady reporter. In & quot; Highbrow Blues& quot; < br=""> and in reflections on her own early fiction, she writes intimately of & quot; the< br=""> din in our heads, that relentless inner hum, & quot; and the curative power of< br=""> literary imagination. The Din in the Head is sure to please fans o Ozick, win her new readers, and excite critical controversy and acclaim.
Review
"Ozick should be required reading for students of literature at all levels." Library Journal
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"Erudition lightly worn, eloquence finely crafted." Kirkus Reviews
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"Criticism is a difficult form, and Ozick practices it with passionate curiosity, discernment, and pleasure in both rigorous thinking and the crafting of decisive and scintillating prose." Booklist
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"Written in clean, clear, accessible prose devoid of academic ponderousness, these are rich, meaty essays to be read again and again." Baltimore Sun
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"While known chiefly for her novels, Cynthia Ozick is an eagle-eyed critic with a supple mastery of the essay form.....In her new collection, she demonstrates again a taste in literature that is refined, wide-ranging and unhampered by the current fascination with identity politics." Miami Herald
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"[T]he book is full of pithy gems." Seattle Times
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"[Ozick] has made herself an indispensable presence in our embattled literary scene." Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
One of America's foremost novelists and critics, Cynthia Ozick has won praise and provoked debate for taking on challenging literary, historical, and moral issues. Her new collection of spirited essays focuses on the essential joys of great literature, with particular emphasis on the novel. With razor-sharp wit and an inspiring joie de vivre, she investigates unexpected byways in the works of Leo Tolstoy, Saul Bellow, Helen Keller, Isaac Babel, Sylvia Plath, Susan Sontag, and more. In a posthumous and hilariously harassing "(Unfortunate) Interview with Henry James," Ozick's hero is shocked by a lady reporter. In "Highbrow Blues" and in reflections on her own early fiction, she writes intimately of "the din in our heads, that relentless inner hum," and the curative power of literary imagination.
The Din in the Head is sure to please fans, win new readers, and excite critical controversy and acclaim.
About the Author
Acclaimed for her many works of fiction and criticism, Cynthia Ozick was a finalist for the National Book Award for her previous novel, The Puttermesser Papers, which was named one of the top ten books of the year by the New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Her most recent essay collection, Quarrel and Quandary, won the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Ozick's work has been translated into thirteen languages worldwide. Her classic novella The Shawl was produced for the stage in New York, directed by Sidney Lumet. Her most recent novel, Heir to the Glimmering World, was selected as a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Washington Post.
Table of Contents
Foreword
On Discord and Desire · 3 ·
What Helen Keller Saw · 11 ·
Young Tolstoy: An Apostle of Desire · 33 ·
John Updike: Eros and God · 47 ·
Throwing Away the Clef:
Saul Bellows Ravelstein · 57 ·
Washington Square: So Many Absent Things · 71 ·
Smoke and Fire: Sylvia Plaths Journals · 85 ·
Kipling: A Postcolonial Footnote · 91 ·
Delmore Schwartz:
The Willed Abortion of the Self · 93 ·
Lionel Trilling and the Buried Life · 105 ·
Tradition and (or versus) the Jewish Writer · 125 ·
Henry James, Tolstoy, and My First Novel · 131 ·
Highbrow Blues · 147 ·
The Din in the Head · 157 ·
The Rule of the Bus · 163 ·
Isaac Babel: "Let Me Finish" · 179 ·
In Research of Lost Time · 185 ·
The Heretical Passions of Gershom Scholem · 197 ·
And God Saw Literature, That It Was Good:
Robert Alter's Version · 219 ·
Afterword
An (Unfortunate) Interview with Henry James · 235 ·