From School Library Journal
Starred Review. One of a bunch of Chicago Jewish youngsters, including Saul Bellow, who collectively set out to revolutionize American literature, Isaac Rosenfeld (1918-56) had his first novel,
Passage from Home, published to wide acclaim when he was 28; readers compared him to Bellow, and most gave Rosenfeld the edge. Using personal interviews as well as printed material relating to Rosenfeld's short, tumultuous life as a lover, husband, father, and writer—whose entanglements may have proved a greater hindrance to his development as a novelist than was the case with the more focused Bellow—Zipperstein (Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture & History, Stanford Univ.) has written a deeply felt but no-holds-barred American fable. Master of a lean, unadorned prose, Zipperstein offers a study evocative of F. Scott Fitzgerald's
Tender Is the Night or a Greek tragedy. A masterful work, highly recommended for all libraries.—Charles C. Nash, formerly with Cottey Coll., Nevada, MO
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Review
"Steve Zipperstein’s nuanced meditation helps to ensure that the literary genius of Isaac Rosenfeld, and the multiple lessons of his brief, exhilarating, but ultimately heartbreaking life, will not be soon forgotten."—Arnold Rampersad author of Ralph Ellison: A Biography
(Arnold Rampersad 20100101)
"Isaac Rosenfeld was a major critic and writer of the post World War II period, from Chicago by way of New York and Greenwich Village, whose first novel seemed to promise--as did the early novels of his close friend, Saul Bellow--that great things could be expected to follow. Alas, they did not, and Rosenfeld died young. Steve Zipperstein has reconstructed from what was left behind a fascinating story bringing to life the generation of Jewish writers and critics who emerged from what was still a Yiddish-speaking immigrant world. Rosenfeld''s Lives is a remarkable achievement."—Nathan Glazer, author of From a Cause to a Style
(Nathan Glazer )
“It is both beautifully written and meticulously researched.”—Jacob Heilbrunn, TalkingPointsMemo.com (review entitled “The Summer''s Best Serious Book”)
(Jacob Heilbrunn
Talking Points Memo )
Finalist in the 2010 National Jewish Book Award in the Biography, Authobiography, and Memoir Category sponsored by the Jewish Book Council
(National Jewish Book Award in the Biography, Authobiography, and Memoir Category
the Jewish Book Council )
“Isaac Rosenfeld. . . was many things to many people, but no one would say he wasn’t bright. If anything bound the many threads of his dissolute life, incisively recounted in Steven Zipperstein’s biography Rosenfeld’s Lives, it was his intellect, his supreme conviction from childhood onward that what made life worth living was the thought that went into it.”--Dara Horn, The Jewish Review of Books
(Dara Horn
The Jewish Review of Books )
"[A] deeply contemplative book. . . . Rosenfeld''s Lives is a fascinating exploration of literary genius and aspiration and the paradoxical power of literature to elevate and to enslave. . . . Zipperstein has written a deeply felt but no-holds-barred American fable. Master of a lean, unadorned prose, Zipperstein offers a study evocative of F. Scott Fitzgerald''s Tender Is the Night or a Greek tragedy. A masterful work, highly recommended for all libraries."—Jewish Ledger
(
Jewish Ledger )
"More than an examination of the life and work of its subject and certainly more than an attempt to make more of the man than his legacy warrants, Rosenfeld''s Lives illuminates what it must have been like to be a young Jewish intellectual of that time and place and to live a life fervently devoted to books and ideas. . . . [Zipperstein] writes with passion for his subject, and with enormous sympathy. . . . Rosenfeld''s Lives offer an analysis of the man his work that is intimate and scholarly, full of private musings, and fascinated by and insightful about some of the most famous people and texts of the twentieth century."—Anita Norich, Association of Jewish Studies Review
(Anita Norich
Association of Jewish Studies )
