From the author of The Messiah of Stockholm and Art and Ardor comes this collection of supple, provocative, and intellectually dazzling essays.
In Metaphor and Memory, Cynthia Ozick writes about Saul Bellow and Henry James, William Gaddis and Primo Levi. She observes the tug-of-war between written and spoken language and the complex relation between art's contrivances and its moral truths. She has given us an exceptional book that demonstrates the possibilities of literature even as it explores them.
"Thirty polished but thorny essays, most of which have appeared in Harper's, the New York Times Book Review, and the New Yorker. Generally less accessible than her novels (The Messiah of Stockholm, 1987; etc.) because of their presumption of familiarity with Jewish traditions, these pieces deal mostly with writers (Primo Levi, William Gaddis, Theodore Dreiser) and writing... Stimulating forays into an original mind; but many, with just cause, will find these essays a frustrating exercise in hermeticism." - Kirkus Reviews