Customer Reviews

A Line Out for a Walk: Familiar Essays

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Joseph Epstein is the type of writer whose works everyone should read but, sadly, too few do. He is both erudite and witty while retaining the nonchalance of "just one of the guys from the neighborhood." His writing is always insightful and always enjoyable. To those who keep a notepad and pencil handy while reading to jot down a tidbit of obscure information or a reference to a book to be explored at a later date, Mr. Epstein's books will necessitate the presence of a good pencil sharpener as well. Sadly, most of his books, of which there have been many, are now out of print. Such is the fate of interesting, witty, and sublime writers in our questionably literate time. Thankfully, A Line Out For A Walk remains available.

Comprising a series of essays, most of which originally published under his pen name "Aristides" while serving his remarkable tenure as editor of that once great journal of American letter, The American Scholar, A Line Out For A Walk is a remarkable book. In it can be found something to please the tastes of most everyone; reminiscences of old friends (some notable, some known only to a few), literary investigations, histories, ponderings, puns, observations, laments, biographical sketches, and reflections - all are offered in the straightforward yet eloquent style that has become Mr. Epstein's trademark. Should anyone finish a reading of this book and not felt themselves to have spent the time wisely and profitably, they should abandon reading altogether as they are obviously missing the point of it.

Mr. Epstein's essays are not the thin, watery things we so commonly see today, containing only a few personal, usually embarrassing remembrances of the author' life. They are full of life, being composed both the high and the low, the intellectual and the mundane. In one essay alone you are likely to find some of the life of Henry James, a note on the achievements of Jewish baseball players, an observation on the nature of indoor cats, three snippets from Lady Montagu's travel journals, a tale of life in the Chicago of the 50's, a little known personal habit of Woodrow Wilson, the real meaning behind one of Gainsborough's paintings, and a brief life of a little known but highly respected journalist from the 1890's. These are not things expected in a modern essayist; these are the qualities of products from the golden years of the essay. Indeed, Mr. Epstein should be, and no doubt someday will be, ranked among the likes of Lamb, Hazlitt, and Leibling. After all to which he has been subjected in his lifetime, it is the least that can be done to honor his outstanding work.

In the past few years I have read a large number of the essays of Joseph Epstein. I find that he is one of the best essayists now writing. He writes with a real grasp of American everyday realities, He also has a real feeling for Literature. But what most impresses in his work is his mastery of Ideas , and his ability to clarify his experience conceptually.

Reading him is a very special kind of education, enjoyable and interesting.

As a wordsmith, Epstein has few peers. These essays are to be luxuriated in, read and re-read. Pure pleasure.

Your best friend, this book, when you are down, when you go to sleep alone (you no longer feel alone), when you do not mind laughing out loud to the amazement of your pets.

The best gift to a friend you care about. Better be over fifty though to thoroughly enjoy. A Brenner