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Synopsis
A collection of essays on notable writers and their work, including analyses of T.S. Eliot's fascination with fascism, Isaac Babel and the Red Cossacks, Henry James and modernism, and other studies of Anthony Trollope and Salman Rushdie.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm afraid Ms. Ozick is unable to empathize with the tremendous challenges facing feminists today. Her inability to present the true sufferings of women, as they challenge white male patriarchy, rape, lies, and indifference, as well as her absolute refusal to demonstrate the incredible richness and variety of mother/daughter relationships, is extremely frustrating. When I want to read a REAL writer of courage and feminist conviction, I turn to bell hooks, Katha Pollitt, Adrienne Rich, and other empathetic, brave and brilliant voices. I do not turn to a mildly talented conservative 'story-teller' like Ozick.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Thoughtful Essays
25 Dec 2005
Format:Paperback
These essays are part autobiographical, part literary review, part reflection on the 20th century as a whole. The clearest example of the merging of these themes occurs in "Rushdie in the Louvre". Here we find Salman Rushdie who to Cynthia Ozick "has become, in his own person, a little Israel'; and defending whom "nowadays... places one among the stereotypes and the `Orientalists'". Here we see a man whose "right to exist is mired in the politics of anti-colonialism-and never mind the irony of this, given Rushdie's origins as a Muslim born in India." And here too we see Rushdie's work; his literary genius. But these themes (so concentrated in this one essay) are scattered throughout the rest of the book as well.
In this volume we find a touching portrait of Alfred Chester-a writer who might have been great; the first writer of her own generation Ozick meets; the man who (in many ways) gives her a hand up the ladder, even as he begins his own descent into death. Here we find the warning to our generation because we are too ready to celebrate the Now at the expense of history and culture (a warning that follows on the heels of a smile-inducing history of the Temple's fight against Modernity).
And then there are some frankly personal essays. "Helping T.S. Eliot Write Better" will make any editor cringe; "Of Christian Heroism" is as much a personal rumination on human nature as it is an ode to Christians who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
But no essay in this volume is impersonal. There are some themes that run through them, of course: anti-totalitarianism, anti-racism, anti-sameness, an abiding admiration for Western culture and literature and an even greater one for the creative spirit. But the author of these essays is ever present.
In "Isaac Babel and the Identity Question", Cynthia Ozick decries the lack of "a valid biography of Babel." In this volume of essays, she has (I think) begun to write her own.
In this volume we find a touching portrait of Alfred Chester-a writer who might have been great; the first writer of her own generation Ozick meets; the man who (in many ways) gives her a hand up the ladder, even as he begins his own descent into death. Here we find the warning to our generation because we are too ready to celebrate the Now at the expense of history and culture (a warning that follows on the heels of a smile-inducing history of the Temple's fight against Modernity).
And then there are some frankly personal essays. "Helping T.S. Eliot Write Better" will make any editor cringe; "Of Christian Heroism" is as much a personal rumination on human nature as it is an ode to Christians who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
But no essay in this volume is impersonal. There are some themes that run through them, of course: anti-totalitarianism, anti-racism, anti-sameness, an abiding admiration for Western culture and literature and an even greater one for the creative spirit. But the author of these essays is ever present.
In "Isaac Babel and the Identity Question", Cynthia Ozick decries the lack of "a valid biography of Babel." In this volume of essays, she has (I think) begun to write her own.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Our greatest essayist
16 Jun 1999
Format:Hardcover
Having already reviewed Ozick's other essay collections, I have little to say about Fame & Folly, a wholly splendid book. But I do want to point out that the reviewer who evaluated Fame & Folly solely in terms of its author's feminism (s/he found Ozick insufficiently feminist) did a disservice to those who want some idea of the nature of the book. Fame & Folly does not aspire to be a feminist tract, despite the fact that Ozick is as liberated a woman as you could find (incidentally, her earlier collection Art & Ardor contains several essays in praise of classical feminism). It is a defense of, a hymn to, belles lettres. She writes about Henry James. She writes about Saul Bellow. She recalls her friendship with the late writer Alfred Chester. She shows, in every sentence, why she is America's foremost essayist.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Typically Excellent
25 Dec 2005
Format:Paperback
I read most of Inna's superb output on the Internet.
If you are not familiar with her writings, do yourself a favor,
buy her book.
Yuval Zaliouk
If you are not familiar with her writings, do yourself a favor,
buy her book.
Yuval Zaliouk
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