what we talk when we talk about anne frank

Though he broke with that world, he chose to make its black-hatted, bearded men and its bewigged women the protagonists of many of his stories. Englander came out of an intensely Orthodox milieu in Brooklyn. For the Relief of Unbearable Urges created a minor sensation, in part for intrinsic reasons and in part for its author’s unusual background. I do not mean to say that there is nothing at all to make a fuss about, but this volume offers precious little cause for celebration. It should be said at once that any link with Babel’s exquisitely crafted fiction or Gogol’s brilliant comic fantasies is preposterous, while the three or four stories in which Englander consciously imitates Singer misfire badly.Ĭritics should be more careful with their words. Stacy Schiff, on the front page of The New York Times Book Review, joined the chorus, inviting us to see Englander as a legitimate heir to Gogol, Babel, and Bashevis Singer. Englander is variously praised for his wisdom, his courage, and the beauty of his writing. Superlatives such as “masterpiece” and “genius” are bandied about. Among the blurbers are the three Jonathans-Franzen, Lethem, and Safran Foer Dave Eggers Richard Russo and Michael Chabon. The jacket of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank comes with a full minyan of blurbs by highly visible, mostly younger, American novelists, printed in double columns like the King James Bible. The enigma deepens with the accolades for this new volume of stories, which, for reasons I will try to explain, is a great falling-off from For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, his debut collection, which appeared in 1999. The great mystery about the fiction of Nathan Englander is the rapturous response that it has elicited.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

What we talk when we talk about anne frank