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
I’ve read more than I expected: Anne Frank, of course, but also Kafka, Singer, Weisel, Bellow, Malamud, Roth, Paley, and Ozick. (And I saw “Angels in America” on tv—but haven’t read it—does that count?) I think if Leonard Cohen had continued writing novels instead of focusing on songwriting and poetry, he could easily have been in this list. His first novel, THE FAVORITE GAME, includes a lot about the second-generation Jewish immigrant experience in Canada. And speaking of the Canadian-Jewish experience, I’m surprised Mordecai Richler is not included here, but I suppose we could all suggest writers who could have been included.
I also read ANGELS IN AMERICA, and read all the Paley collections, Malamud (the complete stories), Roth (a fair amount), Weisel (ditto), Kafka, Babel, Anne Frank, Kazin’s A Walker in the City, some Singer stories. Agree on Richler, Deb. Also: Sholem Aleichem, Howard Engel (Canadian again), others who don’t come to mind but I will be kicking myself about later.
OK – Norman Mailer, J.D. Salinger, Chaim Potok and Michael Chabon.
Isaac Asimov, Warren Adler (particularly for The Sunset Gang), E.L. Doctorow, Stanley Elkin (I love The Dick Gibson Show), Fran (no, not Fawn) Lebowitz, Leon Uris, Nathaniel West, and Herman Wouk.
Jeff, I think Kazin’s A WALKER IN THE CITY is a very underrated book.
Jeff, Norman Mailer’s reputation has sunk like a stone in the past decade or so. I rarely see his work referred to in the major literary journals.
Deb, I was surprised Mordecai Richler didn’t make the cut. But you certainly have read plenty of the writers discussed in this book!
I’ve read quite a bit of Ozick, Paley, and a few others, but mostly the novelists. Major amounts of Bellow, Malamud, and Joseph Heller (who should have been included), and pretty much everything by Roth, who I’ve been reading since the Sixties. Which reminds me that Blake Baily’s Roth biography is due out next week and my library still hasn’t ordered it.
Michael, I’ve been reading strong reviews of Blake Bailey’s biography of Roth. My Library has ordered it.
Bailey wrote a good book about Richard Yates. I’ll be interested in his book on Roth.
I’ve read many books by Jewish authors but none from this list! Wait, was Portnoy’s Complaint there? I read that!
Of course this book has mainly English writing people. In Germany and Austria there were many authors with Jewish roots – you probably have an idea what happened to them if they didn’t make it outside of the Nazi sphere.
Some famous names:
Arnold Zweig, Jakob Wassermann, Lion Feuchtwanger, Max Brod, Karl Kraus, Alfred Döblin und Kurt Tucholsky.
Especially in the 1920s there were many of them who managed to describe the crazy scene in Berlin – with the Nazis’ influence growing all over Germany.