Customer Reviews

Alfred Kazin: A Biography

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This is one of my favorite books from the past five years. It's long but worth it. One of my favorite aspects of the biography is learning that Kazin throughout his life, more than anything, felt like a failed writer because he was unable to succeed as a novelist. But there is also great stuff here on every aspect and decade of his adult years, his multiple wives, women, children, appointments, books, articles, and residences. Great read.

Without a doubt one of the most appealing biographies of a critic that I've read. Cook offers a sympathetic but not uncritical examination of a literary life of a significant mid-century American writer. One comes away with the sense of a major critic and first-rate talent who somehow never quite found his own literary form. Kazin's best books came only after long struggles to define his subject and give it shape, and he was not always successful at that. Cook relies heavily on the journals that Kazin kept throughout his life, which permits him to explore his inner life and personal relationships with some depth. Particularly good on the Jewish-American experience in the 20th century, on New York, and on academia, as well as on 19th-century American literature, Kazin's special area of expertise.