Foreign Bodies

CRITIQUE: Where is the Thrall? This is the least engaging of the three Cynthia Ozick novels that I've read...though it has much to recommend it, and you might still enjoy it more than I did. The first ("The Messiah of Stockholm") had me enthralled from beginning to end. But, with this novel, the th......more

A friend described this book to me in the following way: "Well, I didn't like it and I didn't get it, but maybe it's just too American." This book IS indeed American in the sense that the main characters are American and the author is America -- and some of it is set in America, although quite a lot......more

I had a lot of trouble with the book. Ms. Ozick is obsessed with using multiple adjectives and multiple metaphors when she's referring to one thing or one action. It felt overdone for my taste. The writing seemed sophomoric. The characters had almost no nuance. Marvin was all bad. Bea was all doorma......more

I really wanted to love this book. Cynthia Ozick is an incredibly gifted writer, and Henry James' "The Ambassadors," the explicit inspiration for this book, is one of my all-time favorite novels. Yet despite some beautifully-written passages, it doesn't come off. At times, especially when the main c......more

Cynthia Ozick, author of The Shawl and Trust: A Novel, two of my favorite books, has written a gem of a novel in Foreign Bodies. A slithering and taut comedy of errors, this book examines issues of betrayal and trust, literal and emotional exile, regret and rage, Judaism in post-World War II Europe......more