A collection of essays in which esteemed literary critic and poet Adam Kirsch expertly writes about Jewish literature, the relationship between poetry and politics, and the future of literary reputation in the age of the internet. From examining questions of spirituality and morality, to asking why so many writers have resisted being defined as ‘Jewish writers’, this is a masterful examination of the complex relationship between religion and literature.
A poem from the author:
Now that no one looking
Now that no one looking at the night—
Sky blanked by leakage from electric lamps
And headlights prowling through the parking lot
Could recognize the Babylonian dance
That once held every gazer; now that spoons
And scales, and swordsmen battling with beasts
Have decomposed into a few stars strewn
Illegibly across an empty space,
Maybe the old unfalsifiable
Predictions and extrapolated spheres
No longer need to be an obstacle
To hearing what it is the stars declare:
That there are things created of a size
We can’t and weren’t meant to understand,
As fish know nothing of the sun that writes
Its bright glyphs on the black waves overhead.
Why do we love it?
It reminds us that the question ‘Who Wants to be a Jewish Writer?’ still matters – and that the answer, however complex, is worth pursuing. With his trademark brilliance, clarity and quiet authority, Adam Kirsch treats Jewish writing not as a problem to be solved, but as a tradition to think with. The result is a rich, serious, and profoundly Jewish book.
Listen to Adam Kirsch discussing this book on our new JLF Player here