News and commentary posted in the Biographies section of Jewish Literary Review.
October 31, 2011
At first glance, the thought of reading a biography of David Ben-Gurion written by Shimon Peres may seem like a waste of time. After all, Peres considers Ben-Gurion his hero and mentor so you can’t expect any sort of objective … Continue reading
October 13, 2010
At one point, I began to believe that every Jewish home had at least one mezuzah and one copy of Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s Jewish Literacy. Both seemed ubiquitous in the circles I ran around in. All joking aside, I’ve relied … Continue reading
April 23, 2009
A new book on Isaac Rosenfeld, Steven J. Zipperstein’s “Rosenfeld’s Lives: Fame, Oblivion, and the Furies of Writing,” suggests that the late writer may have accomplished more than what the critics have given him credit for. Yes, he died at … Continue reading
July 16, 2008
Based on some of the things he said about Jews, certain scholars have called Franz Kafka a Jewish anti-Semite. He said he admired Zionism but was “nauseated” by it. He said he’d like to stuff all Jews (himself included) into … Continue reading
June 6, 2008
Niall Ferguson, the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, wrote an interesting review for The Times Literary Supplement of Jeremi Suri's recent book, “Henry Kissinger and the American Century.” Early on in the piece, Ferguson makes the … Continue reading
May 23, 2008
I suppose Jean Moorcroft Wilson intended the double entendre in the title of her new book, “Isaac Rosenberg: the making of a Great War poet.” Rosenberg, pictured right, was considered by many to be a ‘great’ war poet as well … Continue reading
January 29, 2008
I guess that if you write a biography of one of the greatest literary critics of our time (pictured above), you have to be prepared for a close reading of your work. Richard M. Cook, author of “Alfred Kazin: A … Continue reading
January 16, 2008
A few more notes on the new Alfred Kazin biography by Richard M. Cook (some of you might want to read my earlier post on Kazin to understand why I wouldn’t want the New York Times‘ William Grimes to have … Continue reading
January 3, 2008
If any critic were to be considered the supreme inspiration for Jewish Literary Review.com, it would be Alfred Kazin (pictured right). When I was kicking around the idea of starting this site, I actually tried to get the domain name … Continue reading
December 10, 2007
Writer and critic Lee Siegel had a review of Philip Davis’ “Bernard Malamud: A Writer’s Life” in yesterday’s New York Times Sunday Book Review section. Siegel applauded Davis’ desire to restore Malamud to the “pantheon of great American writers.” But, … Continue reading
Jewish Literary Review.com is a blog that covers Jewish writing, philosophy, history and law. The site publishes book reviews, snippets of news about Jewish literature and the occasional author interview.
My name is Steven H. Pollak and I have written for the Baltimore Jewish Times, the Atlanta Jewish Times, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and American Jewish Life magazine.
In addition, I've written for several legal and business publications. At the moment, I work as SEO editor for an environmental news Web site.
Please send me an email if you'd like to pitch a book for review or if you want to send a review copy. ...Continue reading about this site.
Enjoy Jewish books? Sign up for Jewish Literary Review's email alerts.
Follow Jewish Literary Review on Twitter. http://twitter.com/JewishLitReview
© Copyright Mom-Mom and Baubie Productions. 2006 - 2012. All rights reserved.