[.ca] Fame & Folly: Essays (ISBN 0679767541)

From Amazon.com:
In this collection of essays, fiction writer and critic Cynthia Ozick has chosen to take on an important topic for all writers: how the lives and works of authors fit in with the times. It is a task she manages with more than a healthy helping of wryness. As Ozick describes it, the subject of this collection is "famous literary figures in our famously rotten century who have been associated with one sort of folly or another." With that in mind, she offers a wide-ranging set of essays on Isaac Babel; H. G. Wells and Henry James; Anthony Trollope; the American Academy of Arts and Letters' early-century disdain for modernism; and more.

Ozick is not a politician:
That's right: Cynthia Ozick is not a politician: she is a writer. She does not write for a weak politically-minded mainstream; she writes for those who enjoy reading and appreciate scholarship. And from glancnig at one customer review, it's obvious what a hiatus exists between these two groups! It is extremely frustrating that someone would dismiss Ozick as "mildly-talented" because of her refusal to compromise her artistic integrity. Ozick does not care about "hanging out" with the popular kids, nor does she toss out her Jewish heritage in light of its being "not completely feminist." In these essays, as well as in her fiction, Ozick sets high standards for male and female writers alike. Her writing is Modern in its style, Classical in its sensibility. And never dull or uninspired.

Our greatest essayist:
Having already reviewed Ozick's other essay collections, I have little to say about Fame & Folly, a wholly splendid book. But I do want to point out that the reviewer who evaluated Fame & Folly solely in terms of its author's feminism (s/he found Ozick insufficiently feminist) did a disservice to those who want some idea of the nature of the book. Fame & Folly does not aspire to be a feminist tract, despite the fact that Ozick is as liberated a woman as you could find (incidentally, her earlier collection Art & Ardor contains several essays in praise of classical feminism). It is a defense of, a hymn to, belles lettres. She writes about Henry James. She writes about Saul Bellow. She recalls her friendship with the late writer Alfred Chester. She shows, in every sentence, why she is America's foremost essayist.

Of some interest perhaps:
I'm afraid Ms. Ozick is unable to empathize with the tremendous challenges facing feminists today. Her inability to present the true sufferings of women, as they challenge white male patriarchy, rape, lies, and indifference, as well as her absolute refusal to demonstrate the incredible richness and variety of mother/daughter relationships, is extremely frustrating. When I want to read a REAL writer of courage and feminist conviction, I turn to bell hooks, Katha Pollitt, Adrienne Rich, and other empathetic, brave and brilliant voices. I do not turn to a mildly talented conservative 'story-teller' like Ozick.