jewish literature

On ‘Love and Strife’, but Mostly the Strife, of Saul Bellow

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On ‘Love and Strife’, but Mostly the Strife, of Saul Bellow

By

Christopher John Stephens

/ 23 January 2019

Saul Bellow has won many literary awards, including the Nobel, Pulitzer, and National Book Award. Yet Zachary Leader's thorough work, The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife, 1965-2005, a PopMatters pick, begins with Below asking himself, "Was I a man or was I a jerk?"

Identity, Geography, and an Overload of Nostalgia in My Mother’s Son

Identity, Geography, and an Overload of Nostalgia in My Mother’s Son

By

Christopher John Stephens

/ 22 August 2018

My Mother's Son could have been an unforgettable and evocative portrait of a lost era.

Reason on the Cusp of Madness: Anti-Semitism and Mihail Sebastian

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Reason on the Cusp of Madness: Anti-Semitism and Mihail Sebastian

By

/ 26 September 2017

The ease with which one can draw a line from the message of For Two Thousand Years to the events of 2017 is almost too terrifying to contemplate.

The Impossibility of Orthodoxy in ‘I Am Forbidden’

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The Impossibility of Orthodoxy in ‘I Am Forbidden’

By

/ 17 July 2012

While Anouk Markovits offers clear explanations of Orthodox practices in her novel, I Am Forbidden, her characters aren’t exactly sympathetic.