Arts & Culture
Did his deracinated outlook subvert his own literary career?
The second volume of a new biography sheds some light on the question.
The story of the Vilna Troupe.
A Mosaic reader was able to solve the mystery of the Yiddish expression tapn a vant, “to grope a wall.”
Robert Alter himself conspicuously does not call his own version Jewish in any way. Can we?
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey.
Like so many works in this genre, a new 350-page graphic treatment of Theodor Herzl is cartoonish in every sense of the word.
Paintings from a Jew in hiding.
Finished after decades of labor, this one-man English translation is a stupendous achievement. How does it hold up against the masterpieces (and follies) that have come before?
On making one’s way into the “intimidatingly smart” realm of the New York Jewish intellectuals, and the company of I.B. Singer.
Explaining the success of Shtisel.
The Encounter.
“Lava its seeds. Atoms/ Fermented forth primevally.”
And his struggle to break into, and remain in, the literary establishment.
