Product Description
The Bear Boy is a story specific to time and place, and about the dislocation of time and place too.It is set in 1935 at the only moment in history when the idea of socialism flickered to life in the United States, when Jewish intellectuals were fleeing out of the country where they were once respected writers and professors, and when a great many people were equal to each other in that the most had little material wealth. The oversize Mitwisser clan are German refugees who survive at the whim of their vagabond benefactor, James Albair.James is heir to the fortune amassed by his father, the author of a wildly popular series of children's books called The Bear Boy.Wayward, feckless and with money to burn, James has taken up the eccentric Mitwissers - scholarly patriach, invalid wife, and five scrappy children - as his latest caprice. Into this chaotic household comes Rose Meadows, orphaned at the age of eighteen.Rose quickly becomes indispensable as assistant to Professor Mitwisser in his research on an arcane sect and then, inevitably, as general nursemaid, nanny and companion to the entire family.Her sole inheritance is a book: the first title in the Bear Boy series.When the actual Bear Boy appears on the Mitwisser doorstep, Rose must resist the pull of his reckless orbit as she pursues her own desires.The Bear Boy evokes Depression-era New York from the perspective of perpetual outsiders.Brought together by coincidence and fate, the hard times they inherit still hold glimmers of past wonders and future dreams. ... Read more

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The Best American Essays 1998 features a captivating mix of people and prose, as guest editor Cynthia Ozick shapes a volume around the intricacies of human memory.The reflections and recollections of Saul Bellow, John Updike, Jamaica Kincaid, John McPhee, and Andre Dubus join company with many voices new to the series, as an astonishing variety of writers share their deepest thought on ecstasy and injury, ambition and failure, privacy and notoriety. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of 20 best books I have read.
In general I find this one of the best series of collection but this one was even better than the others.Afew essays were only mearly good but most of them were outstanding and left me thinking. One essay about how man of 60 views the world and hislife was exellent; then another essay about how a man of 90 views the world. Made for a great comparison ... Read more

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In this lively, outstanding group of essays with a slightly different twist--one that looks out instead of in--Amitav Ghosh visits New Delhi during a moment of social upheaval; Change-Rae Lee welcomes readers into his family kitchen; Gerald Early analyzes the Afrocentric dream of a world without whites; Jonathan Raban hears "the last call of the wild" on the Pacific coast; plus contributions by Nicholas Baker, Ian Frazier, and others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Genre-bending a Mistake
This collection of essays is interesting and many of them are excellent, but the inclusion of Coetzee's piece confounds me. His "essay" describes the trip of a famous Australian writer, Elizabeth Costello, who goes with her son to receive an award and makes a speech about Realism and Kafka. "Oh good," I thought, "an author to explore. Her novel sounds interesting." My mind began to waver when the prose followed her son in a sexual experience at the conference. "Wow," I thought. "Coetzee must do quite an interview to elicit this kind of frank material." At the end of the piece, her son is looking down into the sleeping writer's nose and throat and thinking about where he came from. Clearly, this is not an essay.

This is not entirely Coetzee's fault, though he must have given permission to have this chapter from his novel (titled Elizabeth Costello) included as an essay. It's not an essay. It's fiction. And though there is a lot of heady intellectualizing, it's done by a fictional character, not by the author speaking for himself. It might go better into an anthology of short fiction, for example.

This genre-bending seems like a big mistake to me. It makes me wonder if Hoagland really has a farm, or if he just writes about someone who does. As a teacher and practitioner of creative nonfiction, I am quite certain that the contract between essay writer and reader is that the writer will not make things up. The writer will tell the truth of his or her lived experience. If that contract is broken, all bets are off.

My two cents on this. I realize that 1998 was a while ago, and I'm ready to let by-gones be by-gones and move on. But honestly!

--LA Abraham

1998 best of essays
I found this at a used book store bargain bin, it is my second "Best American Series" book and I really enjoyed it. The variety of writing that can fall under the classification of "essay" is so vast that the editor has somewhat of a hard job in choosing. In this case Ozick focuses on retrospections, older people looking back on their lives. I appreciate the thematic organization, but I am certain these are not the "best", rather ones that have a common theme. But then, what is "the best"? J.M. Coetzee examines this question and more in "What is realism?", probably the most mind blowing essay of the bunch - I'm not sure if it's fiction, non-fiction or a lesson on writing but it really opened my eyes to some of the games and tricks of writing.

Other essays I enjoyed include Jeremy Bernstein's "The Merely Very Good" which is both an interesting history lesson about some famous 20th century physicists, and a lesson of what it means to be really smart, but not at the top of your field, second-tier. "A Peaceable Kingdom" by Edward Hoagland is a short beautifully romantic piece about the natural world at a mans summer mountain cottage, although it could just as easily be anyones back-yard (replace the bears with chipmunks). Louis Simpson's "Soldier's Heart" is a somewhat dark and effecting story of a WWII vet who had PTSD and ended up in the hospital getting elctro-shock therapy and the lifetime it took to recover and heal from both experiences. Finally, Diana Trilling's "A Visit To Camelot" is a re-telling of a party she went to at the Whitehouse with the Kennedys, it's magical.

A first- rate volume
Joyce Carol Oates essay , "They all just went away" tells of her childhood attraction for abandoned houses, and the story of one family whose house was set on fire by the outraged, drunken father. It is a masterful reflection on the fragility of human existence- and also provides an insight into her own rich and troubled imagination.
Edward Hoagland's reflects on his own relation to Biblical religion after his recovery from two years of blindness. He has a deep appreciation of the Biblical text, especially of Job. His essay is moving though he shows an imperfect understanding of normative Judaism especially in regard to its conception of Justice and Mercy.
William Styron tells of a misdiagnosis he suffered from while a Marine, and gives insight into the sexual norms and expectations of another time.
Julie Baumgold takes a look at the Elvis Myth and also at Elvis own tragic end.
One of my favorite essay writers Joseph Epstein writes of the roles naps have played in his life, and that of many other noted masters of midday refreshment. He in the course of this provides an insightful look into the subject of 'sleeping'.
On the basis of these essays alone I would say that this is a first- rate volume.

A collection of brilliance -- the best art form
Being of a younger generation, my acquaintances are generally surprised to find me reading a collection of essays.This provides me with a golden opportunity to share the wealth I have found in this book.Not only havethe essayists here provoked thought and surprising emotion from me, butthis art has pushed me in a new direction.Witnessing all of theunexpected beauty pouring from this book has made me want to write essays. I cannot wait to get my hands on the rest of this series.Fiction has beenmoved to the back burner.I am forever grateful.

A treasury for the reader's imagination
I found this series a couple of years ago, and each issue is a treasure to enjoy.I often find myself reading about things outside my experience, outside what I expect to be interested in - and every time I learn andthink and imagine and am given pleasure in the reading.The essay form, inthe hands of these writers, is a grand and various opportunity for thoughtand exploration of grand themes and of the minutiae of human life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

****1/2, almost absolutely perfect
Joseph Brill, a middle-aged bachelor, is the Principal of a school somewhere in the provincial US. He is very proud of his school, because he was the one to be chosen from the start to be a Principal, he prepared the Dual Curriculum (revolutionary, or so he hopes), and he is fighting with the parents for his vision of the school. He is so engrossed in his dreams that he has even an image of a perfect student in his head.

Brill, born in a Jewish family in Paris, studied astronomy in France before World War II, and survived the Holocaust mainly in hiding - first in a convent, where the nuns put him in a cellar full of books (where he discovered a patron for his school, Edmond Fleg, and reinforced his philosophical inclinations), and then in a peasant's barn. His parents and most of his siblings (except for his three much older sisters) were killed, and he finally emigrated to the United States. His childhood, youth and the years in hiding are shown as a series of images, which shaped his personality and are a tool to explain to the reader why he is who he is.

When Brill gets a new first-grader, Beulah Lilt, a daughter of a scholar Hester Lilt (a very strong, self-confident and educated woman, a great female character), he gets extremely excited at the prospect of having finally a genius in his school. Fascinated by the mother, he tries to understand her, engaging in discussions and verbal duels, convinced, that she is the only person on his real level, while otherwise (he is afraid) he is surrounded by mediocrity. Unfortunately, Beulah is not a student, which would be noticed by any of the teachers for her brightness - they rather remark on her inattentiveness, her daydreaming and lack of eagerness. Finally, Brill gives up (especially that he cannot keep up with the mother, who is sarcastic and does not care about him at all), and immerses (still dreaming of intellectual pursuits, but somehow getting stuck in a vicious circle) himself in mediocrity, marrying an administrative assistant and producing a school genius himself. His son fulfills all his dreams of an ideal student.

In the meantime, Beulah finishes the school and moves to Paris with her mother. And Brill probably would forget all about her if he did not see her on television one day and see how badly he was mistaken and how his fixation on stereotype has failed to help him discover a talent.

Cynthia Ozick analyzed the main character very acutely, in a novel, which does not have any spare words. Her prose is very dense, very clear, and the novel is compact, formally perfect. There are probably many parallels to her own life in Brills life events, a Jewish theme being recurrent in her books. I (being Polish) did not like the constant referrals to the concentration camps and Holocaust as "being killed in Poland", "being moved to Poland" without any mention of Nazis - perhaps such descriptions contributed to the absurd belief, for a time common in America, that Poland was responsible for Holocaust. I somehow am not sure it was an accidental omission, not by a writer so analytical and careful in all the other respects.

Having said that, I must say that this novel is a very strong piece of fiction, very universal, reflection-stimulating and intriguing.

I would have liked Ozick to be in the room with me...

. . . Yes, the novel is well written, and Ms. Ozick certainly has a highly developed vocabulary... or at least she has access to a good thesaurus. . . .

The main point of the book is that while some of us dream, strive and struggle for intellectual greatness, we usually wind up being just a bunch of ordinary folks. How silly, how depressing! What unrealistic, high falootin' ideas of greatness this woman has! She illustrates her idea of ordinariness by telling us that unless we're great we're doomed to be mere "plumbers". Don't plumbers think? She never passes up a chance to heft her great intellectual superiority complex on the lower forms of life that she and, apparantly, her characters are destined to rub elbows with.

I found Ozick's tone infuriatingly patronizing and false. What all the hubbub about her is all about, I'll never understand.

A timeless story of overcoming inter-personal conflicts.
This novel of Ozick's deals with the constant struggle of achieving perfection.The main character, Joseph, is a Jewish-Frenchman living inthe middle of America.He had faced many hardships during the firstdecades of his life.When he finally is able to overcome them and enjoythe blessings of his emancipation, he cannot let go of his own sense offailure.The relationships he has in the latter part of his life are notfufilling because he focuses on the lack in these people, not thierability.Joseph fails to value people as individuals. As a result, he isdestined to be ordinary and unhappy instead of trying to be extraordinary. At the end of the novel he is given a chance to change his outlook on life. This novel was an easy read and full of beautiful, descriptive imagery. ... Read more

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Word count: 4289. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the finest contemporary writers
Ozick is one of the finest of contemporary writers. Her long story of perhapsnovella"Envy:or Yiddish in America" is a comic, and comic- tragic masterpiece. She creates in this work a whole series of remarkable characters and has great empathy for those who struggled and did not make it in the writing world of America. Many consider her finest work to be " The Puttermesser Papers".
Ozick is an essayist and a literary critic of power and insight. She is a strong writer one whose opinions are held firmly and argued for fiercely.
She has also written political essays of distinction.
Much of her work centers in Jewish worlds, and at least two of her works, "The Shawl" and "The Messiah from Stockholm" have Shoah related themes.
... Read more

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the big read program ... Read more

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This study of the author Cynthia Ozick, correlates her creative art and her intellectual development. It focuses on her struggle to maintain her Jewish religion and culture within a society saturated with Christian and secular values, and examines the effect of Western literary traditions on her. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Midstream, published by Theodor Herzl Foundation on May 1, 2005. The length of the article is 3349 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Cynthia Ozick's glimmering world.(Book Review)
Author: Janet Burstein
Publication: Midstream (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2005
Publisher: Theodor Herzl Foundation
Volume: 51Issue: 3Page: 16(4)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from New Criterion, published by Foundation for Cultural Review on February 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1292 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Cynthia Ozick Quarrel and Quandary.(Review) (book review)
Author: Paula Friedman
Publication: New Criterion (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2001
Publisher: Foundation for Cultural Review
Volume: 19Issue: 6Page: 73

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Un monde vacillant est un lent et hypnotisant voyage à travers les années noires du XXe siècle, alors que planait sur le monde la menace qui allait aboutir à l'impensable Shoah. L'?uvre de Cynthia Ozick, lauréate de plusieurs prix et distinctions, est marquée au sceau de l'identité juive. Née à New York en 1928 de parents russes chassés de leur pays, l'écrivaine a grandi dans le Bronx, théâtre de cette histoire polyphonique.En 1935, dans une vieille maison du Bronx, cohabitent une famille de réfugiés juifs allemands, un vagabond millionnaire et Rose, orpheline de 18 ans, la narratrice de cette fresque éblouissante. Chacun de ces personnages est en fuite. La famille Mitwisser a dû quitter l'Allemagne et une brillante vie intellectuelle : le père, Rudolph, "obscurément formidable", est spécialiste d'une secte juive oubliée et Elsa, sa femme, sombre dans la folie. L'aînée des cinq enfants est une beauté altière de 16 ans qui règne sur la maisonnée. Quant à l'insaisissable James A. Bair, il fut le modèle du Bear Boy, icône de livres pour enfants traduits dans le monde entier, dont son père était l'auteur. Héritier d'une fortune colossale qui l'emprisonne, il déverse cet argent sur les Mitwisser qui le fascinent. Sans un sou, Rose abandonne ses études et est engagée par cette famille. Assistante, soutien moral, bonne d'enfants et surtout élément rassembleur, Rose passera deux années initiatiques auprès de ces gens meurtris. Ce roman au souffle puissant oppose l'érudition des cultures millénaires aux codes du Nouveau Monde, parmi lesquels figure le pouvoir inquiétant de l'argent. Un pur joyau. --Monique Roy ... Read more