Blessing and the Curse

"An erudite and accessible survey of Jewish life and culture in the twentieth century, as reflected in seminal texts. Following The People and the Books, which "covers more than 2,500 years of highly variegated Jewish cultural expression" (Robert Alter, New York Times), formidable and perceptive literary critic Adam Kirsch now turns to the salient works of modern Jewish thought. From the vast emigration of Jews out of Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to the creation of Israel, the twentieth century transformed Jewish life. This was true, also, of writing: the novels, plays, poems, and memoirs of Jewish writers provided intimate access to new worlds of experience. Here Kirsch navigates four themes that shaped the twentieth century in Jewish literature and culture: Europe, America, Israel, and the endeavor to reconfigure Judaism as a modern faith. Reading writers ranging from Franz Kafka to Philip Roth, Anne Frank to Tony Kushner, Hannah Arendt to Judith Plaskow, Kirsch's scope is wide and his observations diverse. Insightful and engaging, The Blessing and the Curse brings the Jewish experience vividly to life"--

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.