Customer Reviews

Fame and Folly: Essays

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These essays are part autobiographical, part literary review, part reflection on the 20th century as a whole. The clearest example of the merging of these themes occurs in "Rushdie in the Louvre". Here we find Salman Rushdie who to Cynthia Ozick "has become, in his own person, a little Israel'; and defending whom "nowadays... places one among the stereotypes and the `Orientalists'". Here we see a man whose "right to exist is mired in the politics of anti-colonialism-and never mind the irony of this, given Rushdie's origins as a Muslim born in India." And here too we see Rushdie's work; his literary genius. But these themes (so concentrated in this one essay) are scattered throughout the rest of the book as well.

In this volume we find a touching portrait of Alfred Chester-a writer who might have been great; the first writer of her own generation Ozick meets; the man who (in many ways) gives her a hand up the ladder, even as he begins his own descent into death. Here we find the warning to our generation because we are too ready to celebrate the Now at the expense of history and culture (a warning that follows on the heels of a smile-inducing history of the Temple's fight against Modernity).

And then there are some frankly personal essays. "Helping T.S. Eliot Write Better" will make any editor cringe; "Of Christian Heroism" is as much a personal rumination on human nature as it is an ode to Christians who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

But no essay in this volume is impersonal. There are some themes that run through them, of course: anti-totalitarianism, anti-racism, anti-sameness, an abiding admiration for Western culture and literature and an even greater one for the creative spirit. But the author of these essays is ever present.

In "Isaac Babel and the Identity Question", Cynthia Ozick decries the lack of "a valid biography of Babel." In this volume of essays, she has (I think) begun to write her own.

Having already reviewed Ozick's other essay collections, I have little to say about Fame & Folly, a wholly splendid book. But I do want to point out that the reviewer who evaluated Fame & Folly solely in terms of its author's feminism (s/he found Ozick insufficiently feminist) did a disservice to those who want some idea of the nature of the book. Fame & Folly does not aspire to be a feminist tract, despite the fact that Ozick is as liberated a woman as you could find (incidentally, her earlier collection Art & Ardor contains several essays in praise of classical feminism). It is a defense of, a hymn to, belles lettres. She writes about Henry James. She writes about Saul Bellow. She recalls her friendship with the late writer Alfred Chester. She shows, in every sentence, why she is America's foremost essayist.

I read most of Inna's superb output on the Internet.
If you are not familiar with her writings, do yourself a favor,
buy her book.

Yuval Zaliouk

At her best I think Cynthia Ozick is second only to James Wood as a writer of literary appreciations. In this volume, for example, she has written a lengthy defence of T. S. Eliot that does not shun his anti-semitism and his rough treatment of his first wife, and a long piece about Henry James's proto-Modernist novel, 'The Awkward Age', that are as good as any essays written about these two writers.

Ozick is also a skilled and affecting memoirist, one who wins this reader's affection by tackling the great subject of the self without ever being noxiously self-centered. 'Alfred Chester's Wig', an essay that provides a very moving portrait of a tortured soul and a perceptive look at the fifties literary and social scene, is as good a 'literary essay' (as opposed to just an essay about literature) as you are likely to read.

There are, however, some occasions where Ozick's high-style takes control and she appears to be writing simply on auto-pilot. 'Of Christian Heroism', for example, makes the point that people are fundamentally and in the main self-interested rather than good or bad and that this makes those who harboured and assisted the Jews through the persecutions of the thirties and forties exemplars rather than oridnary specimens of goodness. I think that this position is entirely defensible, even commonsensical. Yet she comes to this conclusion so messily and with so many empty rhetorical flourishes and redundancies, showing off rather than working through the counter-arguments, that she destabilizes her whole argument.

That caveat aside, however, this collection should be required reading for anyone interested in the fate of literary culture. Cynthia Ozick is one of the few modern writers who is adding to our store of literary wealth and safeguarding what has come down to us.

Ozick is a writer of great moral intelligence and literary passion. Because I love to read about writers, and the relation between their work and their life her essays always provide a special kind of enjoyment for me. Ozick is also tremendously knowledgeable and one in reading the essays learns a great deal about the writers in question. She also has an acute historical sense. Her writing about Eliot and his influence on the literary culture especially of the whole university world of the post- war period rings so true. She has a subtletly in seeing the complex realities of someone like Eliot. One might be a little wearied by her lengthy study of a friend and fellow student of literature, Alfred Chester but nonetheless this too is a kind of instruction in Reality. She is a storyteller also, and therefore her essays have a quality which makes them move along in a definite direction.
A first- rate collection for anyone for whom the literary essay is dear.

That's right: Cynthia Ozick is not a politician: she is a writer. She does not write for a weak politically-minded mainstream; she writes for those who enjoy reading and appreciate scholarship. And from glancnig at one customer review, it's obvious what a hiatus exists between these two groups!

It is extremely frustrating that someone would dismiss Ozick as "mildly-talented" because of her refusal to compromise her artistic integrity. Ozick does not care about "hanging out" with the popular kids, nor does she toss out her Jewish heritage in light of its being "not completely feminist."

In these essays, as well as in her fiction, Ozick sets high standards for male and female writers alike. Her writing is Modern in its style, Classical in its sensibility. And never dull or uninspired.

I'm afraid Ms. Ozick is unable to empathize with the tremendous challenges facing feminists today. Her inability to present the true sufferings of women, as they challenge white male patriarchy, rape, lies, and indifference, as well as her absolute refusal to demonstrate the incredible richness and variety of mother/daughter relationships, is extremely frustrating. When I want to read a REAL writer of courage and feminist conviction, I turn to bell hooks, Katha Pollitt, Adrienne Rich, and other empathetic, brave and brilliant voices. I do not turn to a mildly talented conservative 'story-teller' like Ozick.