THE BLESSING & THE CURSE: THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND THEIR BOOKS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY By Adam Kirsch

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

12 thoughts on “THE BLESSING & THE CURSE: THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND THEIR BOOKS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY By Adam Kirsch

  1. Deb

    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.

    Reply
    1. Jeff Meyerson

      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.

      Reply
      1. Jeff Meyerson

        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.

      2. George Kelley

        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.

  2. Michael Padgett

    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.

    Reply
      1. Jeff Meyerson

        Bailey wrote a good book about Richard Yates. I’ll be interested in his book on Roth.

  3. Cap'n Bob Napier

    I’ve read many books by Jewish authors but none from this list! Wait, was Portnoy’s Complaint there? I read that!

    Reply
  4. wolf

    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.

    Reply

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