Adam Kirsch’s ambitious goal in The Blessing & The Curse is to identify and analyze the best books written by Jews in the 20th Century. I’ve read 22 of the books Krisch writes about–by Kafka, Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Elie Wiesel, Anne Frank, Hannah Arendt, Bellow, Grace Paley, and Bernard Malamud. Of course, there’s about a 100 books Krisch writes about that I haven’t read so I’ve added a dozen or more books to my Want List.
If you’re interested in excellent historical literary criticism, Adam Kirsch’s The Blessing & The Curse is first-rate. Have you read any of these books? GRADE: A
Table of Contents
Introduction ix
I Europe: The Future Disappears
The Road into the Open by Arthur Schnitzler and The Trial Franz Kafka 3
Red Cavalry Isaac Babel 15
Satan in Goray Isaac Bashevis Singer 22
The Diary of Victor Klemperer 29
The Diary of Anne Frank 38
Night Elie Wiesel 46
Survival in Auschwitz Primo Levi 54
Eichmann in Jerusalem Hannah Arendt 62
II America: At Home in Exile
The Rise of David Levinsky Abraham Cahan 73
Bread Givers Anzia Yezierska 81
Stories by Delmore Schwartz and A Walker in the City Alfred Kazin 87
The Adventures of Augie March and The Victim Saul Bellow 96
Stories Bernard Malamud 105
Goodbye, Columbus and Portnoy’s Complaint Philip Roth 112
Stories Grace Paley 123
Stories Cynthia Ozick 129
Angels in America Tony Kushner 138
III Israel: Life in a Dream
Only Yesterday S. Y. Agnon 147
The Diary of Hannah Senesh 156
Khirbet Khizeh S. Yizhar 162
Where the Jackals Howl Amos Oz 169
See Under: Love David Grossman 179
Mr Mani A. B. Yehoshua 188
Dolly City Orly Castel-Bloom 194
Poems Yehuda Amichai 198
IV Making Judaism Modern
Three Addresses on Judaism Martin Buber 205
Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism Hermann Cohen 211
Judaism as a Civilization Mordecai Kaplan 220
Halakhic Man Joseph Soloveitchik 229
God in Search of Man Abraham Joshua Heschel 237
To Mend the World Emil Fackenheim 245
Standing Again at Sinai Judith Plaskow 253
Select Bibliography 259
Index 263