Synopses & Reviews
Cynthia Ozick is an American master at the height of her powers in Heir to the Glimmering World, a grand romantic novel of desire, fame, fanaticism, and unimaginable reversals of fortune. Ozick takes us to the outskirts of the Bronx in the 1930s, as New York fills with Europes ousted dreamers, turned overnight into refugees.
Rose Meadows unknowingly enters this world when she answers an ambiguous want ad for an "assistant" to a Herr Mitwisser, the patriarch of a large, chaotic household. Rosie, orphaned at eighteen, has been living with her distant relative Bertram, who sparks her first erotic desires. But just as he begins to return her affection, his lover, a radical socialist named Ninel (Lenin spelled backward), turns her out.
And so Rosie takes refuge from love among refugees of world upheaval. Cast out from Berlins elite, the Mitwissers live at the whim of a mysterious benefactor, James A'Bair. Professor Mitwisser is a terrifying figure, obsessed with his arcane research. His distraught wife, Elsa, once a prominent physicist, is becoming unhinged. Their willful sixteen-year-old daughter runs the household: the exquisite, enigmatic Anneliese. Rosie's place here is uncertain, and she finds her fate hanging on the arrival of James. Inspired by the real Christopher Robin, James is the Bear Boy, the son of a famous children's author who recreated James as the fanciful subject of his books. Also a kind of refugee, James runs from his own fame, a boy adored by the world but grown into a bitter man. It is Annelieses fierce longing that draws James back to this troubled house, and it is Rosie who must help them all resist Jamess reckless orbit.
Ozick lovingly evokes these perpetual outsiders thrown together by surprising chance. The hard times they inherit still hold glimmers of past hopes and future dreams. Heir to the Glimmering World is a generous delight.
Review
"[A] fairy tale with locked rooms, mad songs, secret books and stolen babies....Think of Glimmering as a Turn of the Screw in which the ghosts are from the dreadful future....[A] brilliant apostrophe to shattered worlds." John Leonard, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Ozick sets in motion a kaleidoscopic array of complex entanglements in her much anticipated new novel, a work of scintillating intelligence and supple imagination that...draws on sacred and literary traditions to create a tale at once compassionate and brightly satirical, otherworldly and down to earth." Booklist
Review
"This witty book will appeal to admirers of the fanciful tales in Ozick's Puttermesser Papers and to readers seeking well-written novels with intellectual depth." Library Journal
Review
"Rose Meadows, the narrator of Cynthia Ozick's new book, seems at first glance like a heroine plucked from a nineteenth-century novel....Ozick, the celebrated author of essays, short stories, and novels, unpacks the histories and relationships of these characters with great energy and imagination. She has written a dark fairytale for grownups, and it reads like a haunting pleasure." Anna Godbersen, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review)
Review
"Heir to the Glimmering World offers itself as an antidote to literature as parasitism, and its arguments are, for the most part, convincing. All the book's strands tug in some way at the knot of sources and interpretations, primariness and secondariness, that constitutes both its substance and its form." Ruth Franklin, The New Republic (read the entire New Republic review)
Synopsis
In
Heir to the Glimmering World, Cynthia Ozick pays homage to the most beloved writers of the nineteenth century Charles Dickens, the Brontes, George Eliot in a story set on the outskirts of the Bronx in the 1930s. Here lives the oversized Mitwisser clan, German refugees who survive at the whim of their vagabond benefactor, James A'bair. James is heir to the fortune amassed by his father, the author of a wildly popular series of children's books called
The Bear Boy. Wayward, feckless, with money to burn, James has taken up the eccentric Mitwissers scholarly patriarch, invalid wife, and five scrappy children as his latest caprice.
Into this chaotic household enters Rose Meadows, orphaned at age eighteen. Rosie quickly becomes indispensable as assistant to Professor Mitwisser in his research on an arcane Jewish sect and then, inevitably, as general nursemaid, nanny, and companion to the entire family. Her sole inheritance is a book: the first title in the Bear Boy series. When the actual Bear Boy appears on the Mitwisser doorstep, Rosie must resist the pull of his reckless orbit as she pursues her own desires.
Heir to the Glimmering World is a delight to read, a novel of great character, wit, and style. It lovingly evokes Depression-era New York from the perspective of perpetual outsiders, brought together by coincidence and fate. The hard times they inherit still hold glimmers of past wonders and future dreams.
Synopsis
Ozick pays homage to the most beloved writers of the 19th century Charles Dickens, the Brontes, George Eliot in a story set on the outskirts of the Bronx in the 1930s.
Synopsis
Cynthia Ozick has been known for decades as one of America's most gifted and extraordinary storytellers; her remarkable new novel has established her as one of the most entertaining as well.
Set in the New York of the 1930s, Heir to the Glimmering World is a spellbinding, richly plotted novel brimming with intriguing characters. Orphaned at eighteen, with few possessions, Rose Meadows finds steady employment with the Mitwisser clan. Recently arrived from Berlin, the Mitwissers rely on the auspices of a generous benefactor, James A'Bair, the discontented heir to a fortune his father, a famous childen's author, made from a series of books called The Bear Boy. Against the vivid backdrop of a world in tumult, Rose learns the refugee family's secrets as she watches their fortunes rise and fall in Ozick's wholly engrossing novel.
About the Author
Author of numerous acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, CYNTHIA OZICK is a recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Man Booker International Prize. Her writing has appeared in The New Republic, Harper's, and elsewhere. She lives in New York.