Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England by Anthony Julius (Oxford University Press, 2010)
Harold Bloom reviews this new account of what he calls the “long squalor of Jew-hatred in a supposedly enlightened, humane, liberal society” favorably. “With a training both literary and legal, Julius is well prepared for the immensity of his task,” Bloom writes. He particularly admires the section on the representation of Jews in English literature, although he complains that Julius does not quite capture the extent of the harm Shakepeare did by creating his most famous Jewish character, Shylock. “No representation of a Jew in literature ever will surpass Shylock in power, negative eloquence and persuasiveness.” But Bloom commends Julius for his stance opposing contemporary British intelligentsia, and reflects the controversial writing with his own: “I admire Julius for the level tone with which he discusses this sanctimonious intelligentsia, who really will not rest until Israel is destroyed.”
The Good Son by Michael Gruber (Henry Holt, 2010)
Gruber’s seventh novel is, according to this reviewer, also his most ambitious. The storyline involves an American psychotherapist named Sonia who marries Laghari, a Pakistani lawyer, and moves with him to Lahore, where they raise a son, Theo. Gruber aims to use the mother and son’s divergent cultural identifies as means to examine the tension between the Muslim world and the world Sonia, and Gruber, are more familiar with. Although “its middle section, when Sonia and her colleagues are held captive, drags a bit as they discuss at length religion, peace, poetry and various aspects of the Muslim psyche,” the reviewer compliments Gruber’s writing and suggests that readers might learn something about the “east and west,” that is, “if you happen to share Gruber’s worldview.”
A Winter on the Nile: Florence Nightingale, Gustave Flaubert and the Temptations of Egypt by Anthony Sattin (Hutchinson, 2010)
This new history is based on a beguiling coincidence, that in 1849 the novelist Gustave Flaubert, his masterpiece Madame Bovary still unwritten, and the future nurse Florence Nightingale sailed the Nile in the same boat. They never interacted, and their experiences and outlooks would have varied greatly, but Egypt left an indelible mark on both. This reviewer writes that Sattin’s book is “dreamlike,” both to justify its existence—he must create a connection between two people who never spoke—and to illustrate its point, that “in the midst of life, those destined for greatness have no more idea where they are going than the rest of us. A slow boat up the Nile makes the perfect metaphor for this.”
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben (Times Books/Henry Holt & Company. April 2010)
This new environmentally-focused book is at once chastising and funny, coining an unpronounceable word for the planet we usually call Earth. “Earth with one ‘a,’ according to McKibben, no longer exists. We have carbonized it out of existence.” Its an awkward linguistic invention that makes this reviewer sardonically wishes he could find a word, “probably in German,” that describes one who reverts back to bad ecological habits even after reading convincing environmental texts. McKibben offers little in the way of new, formidable solutions, and clearly does not agree with the reviewer’s vision of a necessary “overarching authority, a kind of ecologically minded Lenin.” But, “unlike many writers on environmental cataclysm, McKibben is actually a writer, and a very good one at that. He is smart enough to know that the reader needs a dark chuckle of a bone thrown at him now and then to keep plowing through the bad news.” Too bad they might be chuckling from behind the wheel of a Hummer.
