I just finished reading Cynthia Ozick’s “Heir to the Glimmering World”. The author attempts to paint a poetic portrait of an exiled Jewish family in trauma, having escaped Nazi oppression in the early 1930′s by fleeing to the USA. Nazi’s, oppression and Jewish thought have little or nothing to do with the book, however, as it is entirely a portrait of the family struggles and difficulties in finding diginity in their new situation. It is, also, tangentially, a story about a man named James who was a model for a series of children’s books written by his father and who grows up into a twisted and angry individual who messes around with the family. The book works on some levels (the plot is interesting and the language enjoyable) but fails on others. There is insufficient detail conveyed in many scenes and so they leave a negligible impact because it’s not entirely clear what even happened. The book was nice but ultimately seemed a bit insubstantial for my taste.
More From Ryan Sutter
- The Polyphonic Spree
- The Secret Museum of Mankind
- 3 Months Down, The Future To Go
- I Love the Whole World
- A snapping turtle bars the way to work
