{"product_id":"the-blessing-and-the-curse-the-jewish-people-and-their-books-in-the-twentieth-century-9780393868371","title":"The Blessing and the Curse: The Jewish People and Their Books in the Twentieth Century","description":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing \u003cem\u003eThe People and the Books\u003c\/em\u003e, which \"covers more than 2,500 years of highly variegated Jewish cultural expression\" (Robert Alter, \u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e), poet and literary critic Adam Kirsch now turns to the story of modern Jewish literature. 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKirsch 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn insightful and engaging work from \"one of America's finest literary critics\" (\u003cem\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/em\u003e), \u003cem\u003eThe Blessing and the Curse\u003c\/em\u003e brings the Jewish experience vividly to life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirsch, Adam:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eAdam Kirsch\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of several books of poetry and criticism, including \u003cem\u003eWho Wants to Be a Jewish Writer?\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe People and the Books: Eighteen Classics of Jewish Literature\u003c\/em\u003e. A 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, Kirsch is an editor at the \u003cem\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/em\u003e's Weekend Review section and has written for publications including \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eTablet\u003c\/em\u003e. He lives in New York.","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50861576782098,"sku":"9780393868371","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_e7d34b3b-aaa6-422d-81e9-65f635118d26.jpg?v=1737599130","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-blessing-and-the-curse-the-jewish-people-and-their-books-in-the-twentieth-century-9780393868371","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}