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 [...]
Battle of Clay Shirky’s self-aggrandizing jerks: Seymour Krim vs. Norman Mailer
The Internet is big and until this minute I missed the hullabaloo over Clay Shirky’s A Rant About Women that calls on females to behave like “arrogant self-aggrandizing jerks” — aka, men — to get ahead.
God, I love having read Seymour Krim. He was a damned American Geiger counter who 40 years ago detected the [...]
Hi Touré, it’s me, with the usual suspects (Krim, Bellow, etc)
Skilled hosts steer the conversation toward topics that will draw out their guests. So when I read Touré’s Do Not Pass essay in yesterday’s NY Times Book Review I knew he was only nominally addressing a general audience.
Really, he was talking to me.
Okay, Touré, okay. I got the hint. I’ve got the Jewish angle on the topic [...]
