Cynthia Ozick

Mirabell

Mirabell

Former Member
Oh my lord, I have read only one book of hers but what a writer she proved to be in it. The Puttermesser Papers was a revelation. I can't wait to read more of her work.

wikipedia has this to say

Cynthia Ozick (born April 17, 1928, New York City), is the daughter of William Ozick and Celia Regelson.
She earned her B.A. from New York University and went on to study English Literature at Ohio State University, where she completed an M.A.
Ozick's fiction and essays are often about Jewish American life, but she also writes criticism about American Letters by Georgetown University (2007). Furthermore, she has written and translated poetry.
Her most recent novel, Heir to the Glimmering World (2004), called The Bear Boy in the United Kingdom, has received much praise in the literary press.
Most recently, Ozick published Dictation: a Quartet, a collection of stories.
Ozick was on the shortlist for the 2005 Man Booker International Prize. In 1986, she was selected as the first winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story.





  • Trust (1966)
  • The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories (1971)
  • Bloodshed and Three Novellas (1976)
  • The Shawl (1980)
  • Levitation: Five Fictions (1982)
  • Art and Ardor (1983)
  • The Cannibal Galaxy (1983)
  • The Messiah of Stockholm (1987)
  • Envy; or, Yiddish in America (1989)
  • Metaphor & Memory (1989)
  • The Shawl (1989)
  • Blue Light (1994)
  • What Henry James Knew (1994)
  • A Cynthia Ozick Reader (1996)
  • Fame & Folly: Essays (1996)
  • The Puttermesser Papers (1997)
  • Quarrel and Quandary (2000)
  • The Complete Works of Isaac Babel (introduction 2001)
  • Heir to the Glimmering World (2004) -- (published in the United Kingdom as The Bear Boy (2005)
  • The Din in the Head: Essays (2006)
  • Dictation: A Quartet (2008)
Click to expand...
 
nnyhav

nnyhav

Reader
Complete-Review has an page dedicated to Ozick. As well it should. They rightly put Puttermesser among their best (A+). I've read all but her first and her last two novels. (She was the featured writer for a short story class I took way back when, when Oates was otherwise engaged. Lucky.) The essays also well worth reading, she argufies well.
 
B

BergmanFan

Reader
She appeared on my radar because of the Bruno Schulz connection. The Messiah of Stockholm. I have seen her writing introductions or reviews to several writers I enjoy. Philip Roth being one.

Saul Bellow is a fantastic writer. Mostly forgotten by time, do not see many people bring him up. And if you like him, how about Bernard Malamud? His short stories are fantastic.
 
B

BergmanFan

Reader
I own all of Saul Bellow. With a saved PDF somewhere of the things I'd like to get from his Archives, which would cost a decent penny. We are talking unpublished stories, plays, an unfinished book on Chicago. You would probably love this, even incomplete as it stands. Have not read all of him but savoring, recently dipped my toes back and read The Actual.

Same with Malamud. Own all of his published work and have a file on his unpublished work I'd like to get one day. I think it's around 25 unpublished stories. I have read all of his published stories and would recommend those. They are amazing. You can either get the Complete Stories or get them in increments:

The Magic Barrel (1958)
Idiots First (1963)
Pictures of Fidelman (1969)
Rembrandt's Hat (1973)
The People (1989)

With Malamud's novels, I have only read The Tenants. It was rather good. You have racial tensions, a cityscape feel, a decently deep analysis of writing and what it takes to be a writer and some really psychedelic sequences toward the middle and end.
 
B

BergmanFan

Reader
The Collected Stories look tempting. Have added them to my list. Would this be your recommendation? It seems to collect: The Little Disturbances of Man (1959) Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974) Later the Same Day (1985). Philip Roth seemed to like her. A bonus. The only other collection I can see is Long Walks and Intimate Talks (1991), which is a combination of short fiction and poetry. Sorry this post is more concerned with her short stories than poetry.
 
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BergmanFan

Reader
Stumbled across this today,

"David Peltz, who remained Bellow’s friend all his life, exposed Bellow to the underside of Chicago life. As a teenager Peltz somehow found himself in a poker game with the novelist Nelson Algren, the journalist Studs Terkel, and the future film director William Friedkin. Afterwards Peltz ran afoul of a crime syndicate because of a supposed gambling debt. His friend Saul Bellow promised Peltz not to publish the story, but that didn’t stop him from using it in Humboldt’s Gift."

Saul Bellow: Novels 1984-2000

On the centenary of Saul Bellow's birth, Jewish Book Council examines the first volume of a two-part biography, plus collected fiction and non-fiction.
www.jewishbookcouncil.org www.jewishbookcouncil.org
 
B

BergmanFan

Reader
I will add them to the list. It's a lengthy list, but hopefully all in due time (the constant battle with time).

And that is really awesome about the creative writing class. Good for you. I take it you write? I am 99.9% done with my debut book. Just ironing out some cover issues, and it should be up on Amazon in less than a week. A pleasure to see fellow writers around here. Voracious readers, writers, individuals with great taste in books. This Forum is rather amazing.
 
A

Americanreader

Well-known member
I’m not really a writer, I’m an English lit major, but creative writing was a requirement for my degree. I tend to be significantly better at the literary study side of the discipline than the creative writing side. Her essay did help me get over the “I have no idea what I’m doing, I can’t write anything that not complete garbage” feeling though.
 
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