More about this book/
check for other copies

A Modernist Reader
A Review by Gabriel Hankins

Weinstein is a passionate and lucid teacher, one of the most graceful expositors of literature in the nation. In this literary appreciation-cum-memoir, he puts his gifts to work for an unpopular cause: the continuing relevance of the great books that "read us," as he claims -- that recover the reader's life through their experimental investigations into time, relationship, gender, and history. His avowedly humanist appeal is intended for the beginning or casual reader of Modernist fiction, making a case for the narrative expedition into the interior recesses of the soul, with (sometimes intimate) biographical anecdotes and heartfelt paeans. Weinstein's book acts as an accessible invitation to the "common reader," digressing fluidly and comfortably on Albertine, Molly Bloom, love, hate, consciousness, madeleines, mothers, and wives (among others). For those who have already read the staple works of Modernism that he discusses, his book will give much intellectual pleasure and lend new insights. For those who have not attempted the Modernist canon, this personalized exegesis may provide little incentive for the hard work of reading; they would be better advised to listen to one of Weinstein's excellent recorded lecture series on the same authors.