Got a kick just now from a review on NPR of Saul Bellow Letters, by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. She quoted one of my favorite lines from the book,
“and then a nice police dog chained to a parking meter, wearing a cast on his broken leg and barking. He may have been asking to see the [...]
Saul Bellow’s Letters draws another rave
Letters of Saul Bellow are great
Letters by Saul Bellow is a new book — and also probably the last new book — from Saul Bellow (unless someone issues the Bellow laundry lists, per the Woody Allen parody).
Read about it here.
You can lose your mind, when cousins — are two of a kind
That little jingle from the Patty Duke show dates me, but I found it irresistible after reading how researchers determined that Jews around the world are virtually cousins and genetically more like each other than they are like their non-Jewish neighbors. Jews thousands of miles apart share genetic markers commonly seen among distant relatives, such [...]
continue reading >>After I read Chabon’s chosen people article I was still hungry
The major real estate devoted to Michael Chabon’s “chosen people” piece in the New York Times reminded me that, like myself, many Jews stumble into Jews. As historian Michael Meyer said, for today’s Jews being Jewish is only a part of their total identity. But Jews are often more aware of this aspect of themselves than any [...]
continue reading >>My Moses Herzog moment
The uncontrollable urge to express himself on every issue of the day was a clear sign that Saul Bellow’s Moses Herzog was losing it. So I have always treated the temptation to comment on blogs or internet magazines as an evil impulse to be resisted.
But today I caved. I really let loose with a doozy [...]
Ellison’s Invisible Man and my kind of politics
Just finished reading Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, and it ends with one of those great affirmations that has always been my kind of politics. It’s the politics of ecstasy, I guess.
Very near the end of the novel the Invisible Man says,
“Until some gang succeeds in putting the world in a strait jacket, its definition is [...]
Vivian Gornick reviews Missing a Beat for Bookforum
Heavyweight critic and great essayist Vivian Gornick reviews Missing a Beat in the April/May issue of Bookforum, and her hardheaded take on Seymour Krim includes this assessment,
Krim developed an essay-writing persona—neurotic, ambitious, angry, and self-mocking—through which he made an identity out of his breakdowns, his hungers, his envy of those who had achieved worldly success: [...]
Late thoughts on Greenberg and Jews (plus Bellow, Krim)
Maybe I wasn’t being fair to the movie when I finally saw it yesterday. I didn’t want to see it, was almost afraid of seeing it. And I hated it.
I’ve put in a lot of time thinking about Greenberg-type characters — from Bellow’s Tommy Wilhelm in Seize the Day to self-declared failure Nicolas Slonimsky to [...]
David Brooks adds a page to Jewish literature of patriotism
David Brooks yesterday found a way to proclaim his love for America that in its heartbreak and longing adds a page to an American Jewish literature of patriotism.
The news hook for his New York Times op-ed column was the healthcare reform bill and the Democrats. But he soon got emotional, and it wasn’t the bill’s [...]
Saul Bellow on pit bulls
Yes, I’ve got a Saul Bellow text for everything.
Anyway, this Daily Beast article on the danger of pit bulls is obviously right. What’s frightening is the irrational and confused responses posted by scores of people who are stupid and/or nuts.
Bellow picked up on Americans’ bizarre love for these dangerous animals more than 20 years ago [...]
