Customer Reviews

The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-hatred, and the Jews (Jewish Encounters)

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Those who are familiar with David Mamet only through plays like "Glengarry Glen Ross" and movies like "House of Games" are in for a rough surprise when they read his short, sharp book "The Wicked Son." The style is similar to his plays (without the storm of profanity). You find the same twisting but seductive rhythms, the slashing humor, and the brutal truth-telling. But this is a book explicitly about a single topic: anti-Semitism (although in the process he covers a lot more ground.) And not just the anti-Semitism of the world, but the self-hatred of the cultural, secular Jewish person who is estranged from his or her heritage. There are many, I gather, who will find this book very difficult to read, but if it's taken in the spirit in which it is intended (a sincere offer of help from a brother) I think you will find it fascinating.

I am Mormon rather than Jewish, but I can clearly see how this book applies to any religious tradition to a certain extent (as Mamet himself says when comparing the central stories of the sacrifice of Isaac with the Crucifixion.) This book bristles on every page with provocative thoughts on community, guilt, sin, sadomasochism, wealth and poverty, Israel, the Middle East, religiously-mixed marriages (he's for them), tribal life, and holiness. His bottom line: the unhappiness of the Jewish person alienated from religion is not caused by the tradition, but the individual reaction to the tradition. To the Jew who says "I gave it up because I had a bad experience with a rabbi", Mamet replies: that's like saying I had a bad experience with a doctor so I gave up medicine. Or I never got married because I had a bad experience with a woman. Get over yourself, in other words: come down off the cross and use the wood to build a bridge to the future.

Mamet quotes more than once the longshoreman/philosopher Eric Hoffer, and "The Wicked Son" does remind me of one of Hoffer's common-sense books. I finished it feeling better and, I hope, thinking much more clearly. All of us who live in the modern world are to some extent apostates; that is, we have experienced the anxiety of loneliness, doubt, and separation from the influences of our parents. But I think anyone who has experienced the joy that can come from participation in a religious community will really identify with and like this book. And those who have closed themselves off from such experiences may get an inkling of what they are missing.

As Bill Maher said to David Mamet, "I knew you were Jewish, but I didn't know you were THAT Jewish!"

Mamet is an exquisite and versatile writer who is unashamed of the English language and its resources. This polemic against Jewish disloyalty is eloquent and best read with a dictionary and thesaurus nearby.

For all the beauty of the work, I would be hard pressed to tell you much about the message of the book beyond "get in or get out." Mamet is as harsh in his treatment of Jewish indifference and self-hatred as Ann Coulter is of liberals.

Ironically, Mamet himself is a liberal Jew. The result is a Reform Jew who has composed an Orthodox screed using the vocabulary of Conservative writer William Safire. It is unsettling, even for those of us who already "got in." Maybe that's the point -- but I still needed an antacid when I finished.

I agree totally with the theme of this book. Mamet describes a degree of Jewish intentional self-hate and anti-intellectualism about the subject of Judaism that is extraordinary.

It always amazes me when I sit in a synagogue and hear otherwise sophisticated Jews brag of the ignorance of anything Jewish.

Or when individuals who at some level identify as Jews disparage Israel with the same words and hate as Hamas.

The scorching words from Mamet tackle these two types.

But, as much as I agree strongly with the theme, the book is an agony to read. The excerpt on the book cover or in book reviews is as clear as it gets. Passages such as this appear every 15 pages or so. The shrill voice of the author never stops. When one hears a speaker whose only voice is screaming, after a while turning off is the only salvation.

A book like this could be finished in one long flight. It is so ponderous that I avoided taking it on two recent 18 hour flights.

So much more could have been said about the subject in this short book (189 pages), but so much seems to be devoted to Mamet's tirade that it is a hard read. Very clever; very much too clever. It too much reminds me of the high school intellectual trying to show how much she knows rather than an author trying to convey a vital subject to his audience.

Given the anger in tone and the scorn in the picture on the book jacket cover, it is hard to imagine an editor confronting the author. Shame.

I came across this book after seeing a positive review in Library Journal and decided to give it a try through interlibrary loan. I am now planning to buy several copies for friends and family. As readers of the reviews may notice, this book has generated a nasty discussion about the Holocaust, started by Holocaust deniers. I got drawn into the debate before I ever read the book, and this shaped my view of it once I finally read it. If I had read it without the shocking realization that anti-Semitism was still around and persistent, it might not have rung so true. Many people writing reviews on here mention "liberals" and the "New York Times", and Mamet mentions them as well. I make no excuse for my liberalism or my reading of the New York Times when I can get a copy of it. Yet Mamet makes the point that all this American life, American Jewry is but a fragile thing. Philip Roth and his generation smirked at the refugees from Europe and pursued lives of assimalation. We like to think these things are secure, but Mamet makes the inexorable case that we cannot be sure. Inexorable cases can be frustrating, but it is well worth it in his style of writing. Much of the book comes from his perspective and his generation. I come from a different perspective and a later generation, but I appreciate what he says. In many ways he apologizes for what many in my generation find hideous hypocrisy-- I laugh while cringing at Philip Roth, and Mamet does as well.

For the anti-Semites who have not read this book and persist in their "arguments" it will do nothing. Mamet addresses all the fallacies and makes all the same counter-arguments that those in these reviews have made. For someone who is interested in understanding the issues, know that Mamet is angry, and that may be distasteful to many, but it will perhaps also be disarming. I have found in the week or so since I've read this book that several of his points keep appearing in my daily life in a way I'd never imagined. He is not wrong, and that is the scary thing, and the thing that will make me grapple with this book again.

I normally underline particularly good passages of any book before i send it to my kids, but i gave up after reading less than half of this book. This book should be mandatory reading for everyone who lives in New York or Hollywood.
As someone who has lived for many years in many countries over the years, it always amazed me as to how delusional most Jews in the USA are about how much they live in an alternate universe that is totally detached from the rest of the world. Mamet is totally correct when he states that this is a very binary equation; you either accept or reject the fact that over many millennia, the Jews are the most hated tribe on the planet. Mamet's treatment of this fact is nothing short of brilliant. I suspect that many of the self-delusional will not wake up to this fact until New York disappears under a mushroom cloud instead of the minor and temporary reduction of the World Trade Center to a heap of rubble. Whether it is a golf club in Washington, a dinner party in Paris, Berlin, or Moscow, the dialog is always the same if there are no Jews in the room; Israel is a mistake, and if Iran wipes it off the face of the earth, well, that is the price you have to pay for "peace in our time" as we did in Munich or in pulling out of Vietnam.

This book is so totally and completely politically incorrect that it will never hit the best seller list, not to mention the fact that it would take many readers of the New York Times into cardiac arrest if they fully understood that most of the world would applaud watching a mushroom cloud eradicate Tel Aviv or New York, just as they did when the World Trade Center fell.

I don't know if Mamet and Horowitz spent much time talking about this premise of this book, but it is yet another wake up call for millions who sleep while those who view them in the same category as pigs and monkeys go about finding a new and improved oven called the Islamic atom bomb. The irony is that their own denial of this truth will probably reduce the Jewish population on the planet by more than half in an instant in a few short years. But they will continue to vote for fellow delusionists as they renew their subscription to the New York Times.
Mamet is somewhat overblown in some of his condemnation of everyone hating the Jews, but I suspect his intended audience; his fellow Jews will hate this book.

This is hard to swallow, but it is meant to be hard to swallow. its molten lead tickling the tonsils.
while obviously this is written for middle-class ambitious, and successful american jews it hits me hard in the heart. as a european jew, russian to be precise. my constant balancing act of wanting to be observant and fearing the responsibility that comes with the torah, not to mention trying to keep a sense of individuality, which i too am starting to realize is nothing more than an illusion. is under attack by Mamet.

It hurts even more so because this is precisely what i learned in 6 years of hebrew school. and as much as i rebelled and took interest in every single religion i can find in the world including Zecharia Sitchins obsession with aliens, i still turn my eyes towards God and Judaism.

Why this book is so life changing is because it puts into my mind the idea that i am not alone in the struggle to escape my clan's collectivism, its fight for survival. Is the writing repetitive, indeed it is, does it matter, no.

why should it matter when the man is having a conversation with you as an equal and not as that of a student. he is talking to you with mercy and sympathy as opposed to strict hard view points.

if you are a jew who like me has been searching in every part of the world, every corner for your 'soul' pretending that it is not already within you, ready to embrace god, then pick up this book, don't be afraid of what you might learn about yourself

I had to read this book out loud to follow Mamet's language, but that should be read as a compliment. I am waiting for the book on tape so I can see how he reads this, because this was more of a proclamation than anything else.

I picked up this book just as things were getting a bit uncomfortable this past semester in terms of anti-zionism and what eventually turned out to be anti Jewish demonstrations on campus. Some of the above comments criticized the opening remark that "the world hates the Jews." I think it's rediculous to take issue with this statement. Mamet makes this claim not to generalize, and therefor trivialize, but instead addresses what I have been feeling lately on campus. It is not those who are demonstrating in front of the undergrad library that Jews should be deported from the Middle East, and that a "one state solution, ie Palestine" is the only option, but the supportive or apathetic faculty that allows Jewish students to feel intimidated as they make their way to classes. I watched an enlightened proffessor of peace and conflict studies do nothing as a group of ardent anti- zionists verbally assaulted a Jewish freshman, near tears. This book is for those professors.

The apologetic Jewish intellectual (something with which I identify with myself from time to time) cannot rationalize atrocities committed by the hands of the Israeli Military, Jewish criminals, or other aspects of Jewish Identity that we personally do not identify with. I think Jewish identity is something that the liberated post-holocaust jewish intellectual can identify with, but only to the extent that it suits him or her. The scathing response of Mamet is that these Jews should associate with Judaism even when it makes him uncomfortable--for the sake of the wider community. The chapter where he talks about involvement in social causes as a way to disassociate from our identity-- without feeling the guilt of doing so--should make Jews aware of their own intentions.

A self hating Jew is one that bends over backward to make sure Kwanza is celebrated, that will travel to the Amazon to learn the beat of a tribal drum, will eat some peculiar dish in Asia, all in the name of pluralism and acceptance, but will sit quietly as a student of their own identity becomes the victim of hate speech and abuse. I don't think Mamet believes the assimilated Jew should become a crusader for their community; but instead they should grant the same allowances the rest of the world enjoys.

An angry collection of essays about anti-semitism, The Wicked Son, Mamet admits, relies on shock to rattle those self-loathing Jews who cannot be reasoned with. My favorite essay is his tirade against the venerated (and infuriating) "intellectual" Noam Chomsky who justifies violence against Israel while rationalizing Jihadists as "victims." This essay was particularly fascinating in light of at David Mamet CBS TV show "The Unit" in which a Chosmky-like pseudo intellectual professor teaches the "sins" of the United States "imperialists" in the face of 9/11.

This is not an easy book to read. The voice is full of rage, often rant-like, but Mamet has good reason to be angry as we live in a world in denial about anti-semitism.

David Mamet here displays the pugnaciousness of a Norman Mailer without the self-embellishing promotionalism. Speaking for myself, I do not need the names and behaviors of those Jews who fit the ideal type self-abnegator constructed by Mamet. They are to be found everywhere, including parts of my extended family and even in my own house. But, unlike Mamet, I don't think Jewish self-hatred is only repulsive. The true victims of Jewish ambivalence are the descendents of those Jews who internalize the self-mocking, Woody Allenesque gibes of their "wicked son" parents. They have squandered their own birthright and are too ignorant about its content and value to understand what they've lost. If anything, though he pulls no punches, Mamet does not make the case strongly enough. But for a solid opening salvo, I'd recommend this book to any disaffected Jew who doesn't at present understand the benefit of "showing up" to lead an obligated Judaic life and helping to make community.

Though sympathetic to Mamet's general premise, I found more to dislike about the book than I anticipated. What bothered me most were:
1) Mamet's authoritative voice was presumptuous and pedantic, especially when his arguments were thin, muddled, or unconvincing.
2) The use of Freudian theory/ terminology to buttress those arguments.
3) The erroneousness of Mamet's target: Mamet considers as "apostates" not just the obvious Chomsky-Finkelstein types ( deserving of his buckshot ), and Jews scornful of Judaism ( also buckshot-worthy ), but any Jew who isn't a regular attendee at synagogue. To Mamet, the Jew who doesn't study Torah is part of the problem. And his sole prescription for these apostates? Get thee to a shul.
4) Mamet's tone, throughout, is lofty, arrogant, and without sympathy even when his targets are harmless, non-apostate innocents who happen to irk him, and who he drags in to the fight ( i.e., poets, writers, and artists who participate in artist groups, whom he calls liars for thinking their work has worth ).
The book has its strengths, and the first few chapters dealing with anti-Semitism are good, but from there on it's a rough ride, sometimes interesting, with an erratic driver who does a lot of talking to himself.