This book has two main focuses. One is done well but the other is very problematic.
One focus is the antisemitic environment of academia in 1960. This theme is interesting, and by turns funny, poignant, and traumatic. If this had been the whole book I would have rated it higher.
But the other focus is the Netanyahu family, with Benjamin (Israeli prime minister) as a 10-year-old child. In these sections the author seems mostly interested in showing them as uncultured outsiders (the narrator calls them 'the Yahus' in case you miss it) with no concept of social or academic norms. There are chapters giving the history and politics of Zionism (disguised as a letter of recommendation) and chapters eviscerating Ben-Zion's (Benjamin's father's) actual, real-world scholarship. And chapters showing the bad parenting Benjamin and his brothers got.
It felt really mean-spirited and is based on a story Harold Bloom told the author near the end of his life. Even if it's true, I'm not sure what purpose it serves. Pulitzer or not, this is a book to think twice before reading.
One focus is the antisemitic environment of academia in 1960. This theme is interesting, and by turns funny, poignant, and traumatic. If this had been the whole book I would have rated it higher.
But the other focus is the Netanyahu family, with Benjamin (Israeli prime minister) as a 10-year-old child. In these sections the author seems mostly interested in showing them as uncultured outsiders (the narrator calls them 'the Yahus' in case you miss it) with no concept of social or academic norms. There are chapters giving the history and politics of Zionism (disguised as a letter of recommendation) and chapters eviscerating Ben-Zion's (Benjamin's father's) actual, real-world scholarship. And chapters showing the bad parenting Benjamin and his brothers got.
It felt really mean-spirited and is based on a story Harold Bloom told the author near the end of his life. Even if it's true, I'm not sure what purpose it serves. Pulitzer or not, this is a book to think twice before reading.
