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"Superb novelists deserve first-rate literary analysis. Cynthia Ozick has found such critics... most recently in Elaine Kauvar, whose present work is simultaneously a profound contribution to Ozick interpretation and an astonishingly readable account of the novelist's ideas and artistic manner.... Highly recommended."  -- Choice

"... comprehensive and beautifully written... "  -- Studies in the Novel

"... an indispensible work of scholarship.... Cynthia Ozick's Fiction, in sum, demonstrates an astute and comprehensive grasp of both Ozick's writings and the vast store of writings that influence her... a definitive and indispensible study... "  -- American Literature

"... a rare combination of painstaking scholarship with dazzling critical intelligence and inventiveness." -- Edward Alexander

"... Elaine Kauvar's comprehensive and beautifully written study of Cynthia Ozick's fiction should be welcomed as a heroic counter-cultural manifesto, both in what she says and in the elegance with which she says it." -- Congress Monthly

Looking beyond the stereotype of Ozick's work as American-Jewish literature, Kauvar illuminates the intricacies of Ozick's texts and explores the dynamics of her creativity. Kauvar provides readings of all of Ozick's fiction from her first published novel, Trust, through The Messiah of Stockholm.

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"Cohen has succeeded in showing a fusion of Ozick's writing as sacred and comic. Defining humor broadly, Cohen persuasively argues that levity and liturgy are natural companions, enriching each other, especially in the creative imagination of Cynthia Ozick." -- Midstream

"... a thoughtful introduction to a monumental though underrated writer." -- SHOFAR

"This study is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarly criticism of Ozick and focuses on her comedic style." -- Choice

"Cohen has written an important... book, one that celebrates Ozick's 'liturgical laughter,' emphasizing on every occasion the connection between the comic and the sacred. It is a connection we should be reminded of often." -- Belles Lettres

"Cohen's readings of these stories reveal their many levels and meanings in a language as acute and perceptive as that of Ozick herself."  -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch Magazine

"In presenting Ozick as a 'comedian of ideas,' Sarah Blacher Cohen has raised the study of Ozick to a new level." -- Alan L. Berger

"[Cohen] understands Ozick's hybrid conception of human nature, her realization that the secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow and that the ironic mode... is the best way of telling the truth." -- Daniel Walden

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A marvelous collection containing classic poems and stories by Delmore Schwartz, one of America's most beloved writers.Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966) was one of the finest writers of his generation. Winner of the prestigious Bollingen prize and the Poetry Society of America's Shelley Memorial Award, he was hailed by John Ashbery as "one of the major twentieth-century poets." Schwartz's stories were also widely read and loved, admired by James Atlas for their "unique style that enabled Schwartz to depict his characters with a sort of childlike verisimilitude." Graced with an introduction by Cynthia Ozick, this New Directions Bibelot, Screeno: Stories and Poems, gathers many of Schwartz's most popular stories and poems, including: "Screeno," "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities," "America, America!" and "The Heavy Bear who Goes with Me." Also included is a newly discovered story, "The Heights of Joy," which appeared in the magazine Boulevard in 2002.

Delmore Schwartz's life is legendary; yet it is his work that endures: "What complicates and enriches Schwartz's comedy," says Irving Howe, "is, I think, a reaching out toward nobility, a shy aspiring spirituality, a moment or two of achieved purity of feeling." ... Read more

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Heavy bears and dreams
Sometimes with the legend, we forget how great the work is.This brings together many of Schwartz's brightest works.The introduction by Cynthia Ozick, reminds that Delmore worked under Alfred North Whitehead, and Whitehead's "Witness of the body" shows up in Schwartz's poem "The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me".This heavy bear, also shows up as Hugo Bauer in the recently discovered, short story "The Heights of Joy":"He had moreover, a burley and bear-like dignity."

Schwartz's dreams may have been tortured, but here presented in prose "In dreams begin Responsibility"or in poetry "In the Naked Bed, In Plato's Cave", or "Father and Son":"When you wake up from sleep, still drunk with sleep, you are afraid of time and its slow drip".The fully appreciate the final poem "Seurat's Sunday Afternoon Along the Seine" should be read with a copy of the painting in hand.

Perhaps some of these are repackaged from other collections, but provides an introduction for new readers, and a good reflection for the experienced.
... Read more

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A master essayist
Ozick writes with the great moral seriousness of one of her major mentors Henry James. She writes with very great intelligence and if her essays at times tend a bit to awkwardness they nonetheless always manage to provide new insight into the subject she addresses. She is naturally especially outstanding in her consideration of writers and writing.

Henry James would approve.
When Cynthia Ozick wrote of critic James Wood that "he thinks with a sublime ferocity...[and his writing is characterized by] an intellectual daring that portends literary permanence," she might have beendescribing herself.A belletrist always, a polemicist when necessary (sheagrees with Chekhov that writers should engage in politics only in order toprotect themselves from politics), Cynthia Ozick is our most distinguishedliterary intellectual (perhaps she would prefer the old-fashioned word"thinker"). Some essays in this collection are much finer thanothers, but a great writer's poor performances have a way of not matteringa great deal."A Drugstore in Winter," "Literature and thePolitics of Sex: A Dissent," and "Justice (Again) to EdithWharton" are extraordinary. ... Read more

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QUITE SIMPLY,
a must read.you will not be able to put it down.a well written personal account of survival against unculculable odds.

an amazing book. it may very well change your life. ... Read more

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A collection of essays that touch on the inner life of literaure and of the literary artist. Among the subjects covered are childhood's passionate reading; ambition; the decline of the book as a universal habit; the consequences of gender politics; and the deceptions and impersonations of art. ... Read more

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The fifteen pieces collected here capture the full range of Twain's art, from brilliant short fiction, to comic turns, to a scathing look at anti-Semitism in Vienna. ... Read more

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A bit confusing but. . .
Well, not one of Mark Twain's finest, but The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg is a good book.It deals with the temptation and corruption that occurs in everyones life.A couple receives anonymous money and isforced by reputation to do the right thing.Whether they and the town dois another situation.Eventually the whole community becomes involved andthe righteous owner of the money is to be determined. Although it is alittle confusing, it makes the reader think just how much money is thegreed of all evil. ... Read more