Showing posts with label by Cynthia Ozick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label by Cynthia Ozick. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick

The Puttermesser Papers is really strange. Not the strangest book I have ever read, don't get me wrong. It just comes at you all at once, and all at once means a tyrannical Golem, a tyrannical Russia emigre, a flaccid lover, an idyllic Paradisaical New York City, hoisted on its own petard or its catenary, which is a more painful thing to be hoisted upon, I would suspect. Then while catching, or trying to, my breath, the flighty, tragic, amazing and completely unhealthy life of Puttermesser comes to a ...., but dear reader, I have told too much, or too little. This book won the National Book Award (actually it was just a finalist). Read it if you like being stung by a small bee, while reading your own obituary.