Wizardly Ozick

DICTATION: A QUARTET
By Cynthia Ozick
Houghton Mifflin, 179 pages, $24

We can’t go on. We must go on. And Cynthia Ozick does go on, and goes on wonderfully. Eighty this month, it seems she gathers energy. Maybe it’s the recent death of Saul Bellow, il miglior fabbro, that makes the value Read More

Ozick’s Ongoing Argument, A Dip in the Rollercoaster

This collection of 20 recent essays by Cynthia Ozick begins with a memorial appreciation of Susan Sontag. It’s noble and notable that Ms. Ozick should appreciate Sontag, a vanquishing rival for literary reputation and, equally to the point, a liberal emanating from the old Partisan Review, while Ms. Ozick stands with the Commentary crowd Read More

Ozick’s Ongoing Argument, A Dip in the Rollercoaster

This collection of 20 recent essays by Cynthia Ozick begins with a memorial appreciation of Susan Sontag. It’s noble and notable that Ms. Ozick should appreciate Sontag, a vanquishing rival for literary reputation and, equally to the point, a liberal emanating from the old Partisan Review, while Ms. Ozick stands with the Commentary crowd who Read More

Cynthia Ozick

“I have a theory that your true psychological—even, in the deepest sense, metaphysical—age is the age you mostly are in your dreams,” said Cynthia Ozick, 77, in a fluttering voice as girlish and diffident as a college co-ed’s. She was speaking by phone from her home in New Rochelle, which she shares with her husband, Read More

Skittish Homage to Ozick: The Little Lady Packs a Punch

Heir to the Glimmering World , by Cynthia Ozick. Houghton Mifflin, 310 pages, $24.

Confession: It’s not Virginia Woolf I’m afraid of-it’s Cynthia Ozick. Even though she blurbed my last book (disclosure, disclosure) and once recommended me for a fellowship I didn’t get (thanks for the memories, Mr. Guggenheim), still I’m afraid of her. Read More

Stumbling on the Real Thing: Accidental Gen-X Wisdom

My Misspent Youth , by Meghan Daum. Open City Press, 177 pages, $14.

If you’re still, like, jaded and withdrawn, saving your enthusiasm for a good nonfat latte or a parking spot near the Virgin megastore, then you won’t get the point of Meghan Daum. This 30-year-old’s writing is all about owning up to Read More

Anne Frank : She’s Back! New and Improved?

The new, improved version of The Diary of Anne Frank has opened on Broadway, packaged like any commodity. It’s better! It’s different! It’s more Jewish!

But why, 40 years after it was first produced on Broadway, has it been revived? The question is far from frivolous. We ask it all the time about revivals of Read More