Fw: Recommendations

[charles f albert]

Betsy,


I can't find any references to a work by her with the title Social Studies....


With all due respect, lumping Ozick with Robbins is a travesty...........


And I mean no disrespect to Robbins by so saying.....She is just in a 
different league....


As much as I hate to resort to this kind of stuff, for those unfamiliar 
with the subject, I think this a fair intro:

"Cynthia Ozick is a brilliant writer. Her writing sparkles, glows, 
resonates. She tells good stories, and she tells them spectacularly well. 
Chiselling them down to their bare bones (at least after the initial effort 
of Trust) the stories and novels are wonders of precision. She has a 
marvelous command of the language, and she does wondrous things with it.
      Ozick's writing is also profound. She ponders the larger questions -- 
specifically about the nature, purpose, and possibility of art, as well as 
questions of morality (and that old favourite, idolatry) -- and does so 
without alienating the reader.
      Her New York-Jewish background also marks much of her writing. In 
many instances the writing transcends this -- most notably in The 
Puttermesser Papers -- but for those not familiar with this tradition 
aspects of the writing may be baffling. In a sense, much of Ozick's writing 
is provincial, which can be problematic for those not from the same 
provinces. The religious focus is also not to everyone's taste, but Ozick's 
arguments and expression are thoughtful and refined and generally 
fascinating to follow, regardless of the subject.
      Ozick is also an excellent essayist, though occasionally too strident 
in her arguments, offering sweeping judgements without adequate 
explanations. Her essays in support of subjects tend to be greater 
successes than those in which she expresses a negative opinion (despite the 
pleasure to be had in seeing her cut someone down to size with her 
razor-sharp comments). She is knowledgeable about a wide variety of 
subjects -- and especially about literature -- and her essays are pleasure 
to be read for their style as much as their arguments.
      Without question, Cynthia Ozick is one of the major living American 
writers. "

http://www.complete-review.com/authors/ozickc.htm


For the record, I enjoy no particular facility with her literary 
"co-ordinates" outside the narrow confines of some background on the times 
of Bruno Schultz...


and you'd BETTER come back with MalignD, if you're gonna pursue this 
fight...........



love,
cfa






At 01:54 PM 3/20/2004, you wrote:
>Yo, MalignD,
>Robbins may be an egregious hack, (since when has this list held *that* 
>against anyone?) and most of his books are extremely annoying, but I think 
>JP is an example of "sometimes even the blind squirrel gets the acorn". I 
>think anyone who's deigned to read it will agree that it has that sweet 
>goofiness of Pynchon. Besides, if you'll recall, I only brought him up as 
>a b-list based on the nomination of Messiah of Stockholm.
>
>Plus, I have found another list. You didn't think this was an exclusive 
>relationship, did you?
>B
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:MalignD at aol.com>MalignD at aol.com
>To: <mailto:pynchon-l at waste.org>pynchon-l at waste.org
>Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 12:53 PM
>Subject: Re: Fw: Recommendations
>
>><<Tom Robbins's Jitterbug Perfume (Skinny Legs & All is a distant second>>
>
>I'm sorry, but anyone recommending something by this egregious hack needs 
>find another list.
>
>(And yes, I know Tom "I'll blurb anyone" Pynchon claims to have liked one 
>of his books.)
>
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