The Blessing and the Curse, Adam Kirsch
The Blessing and the Curse, Adam Kirsch
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The Blessing and the Curse
The Jewish People and Their Books in the Twentieth Century

Author: Adam Kirsch

Narrator: Steven Jay Cohen

Unabridged: 10 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/27/2020


Synopsis

From the vast emigration of Jews out of Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to the creation of Israel, the twentieth century transformed Jewish life. The same was true of Jewish writing: the novels, plays, poems, and memoirs of Jewish writers provided intimate access to new worlds of experience.

Kirsch surveys four themes that shaped the twentieth century in Jewish literature and culture: Europe, America, Israel, and the endeavor to reimagine Judaism as a modern faith. With discussions of major books by over thirty writers—ranging from Franz Kafka to Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel to Tony Kushner, Hannah Arendt to Judith Plaskow—he argues that literature offers a new way to think about what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. With a wide scope and diverse, original observations, Kirsch draws fascinating parallels between familiar writers and their less familiar counterparts. While everyone knows the diary of Anne Frank, for example, few outside of Israel have read the diary of Hannah Senesh. Kirsch sheds new light on the literature of the Holocaust through the work of Primo Levi, explores the emergence of America as a Jewish home through the stories of Bernard Malamud, and shows how Yehuda Amichai captured the paradoxes of Israeli identity.

About Adam Kirsch

Adam Kirsch is the author of several books of poetry and criticism, including Who Wants to Be a Jewish Writer? and The People and the Books: Eighteen Classics of Jewish Literature. A 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, Kirsch is an editor at the Wall Street Journal's Weekend Review section and has written for publications including the New Yorker and Tablet. He lives in New York.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jason on November 01, 2020

Very solid book, encompassing some books you've definitely heard of and some that maybe you haven't. Kirsch's annotations are thoughtful and well-received; the end of the book seemed to pick up steam for me.......more

Goodreads review by =^._.^= on December 27, 2022

Disappointingly limited scope for such a large promise. The selling line on the book flap promises a "...survey of Jewish life and culture in the twentieth century, as reflected in seminal texts" and immediately ends that promise by sneaking into the end of the introduction that this is a survey of......more

Goodreads review by Derek on August 22, 2023

Although this sometimes reads like an encyclopedia, the author offers sensitive and informed readings of a diverse group of modern Jewish writers and one learns something new about seeing the readers grouped together. I had read many of the authors (Kafka, Levi, Frank, Wiesel, Arendt, Roth, Amichai,......more

Goodreads review by John on December 07, 2024

I reviewed his account of delving into the Talmud (solo, when I expected it to be with a study group as is common nowadays) and found it wanting in engaging this reader, as well as citing, informing, and expounding. This 2020 anthology, following up his survey of highlights before the last century b......more

Goodreads review by Shoshana on February 04, 2025

I found this book to be Interesting. Overall I'm glad I found this book but I wasn't impressed with the audiobook. Strengths: Exposure to many diffterent writers increases the chances some of them will be interesting, Krisch's scope of the 20th century and usage of clear categories (Europe, the US, I......more