What’s the most enjoyable, most fun, most just-darn-entertaining book you’ve read recently?
The winner in the 'just-darn-entertaining' category this year would go to Cynthia Ozick's The Puttermesser Papers. What really gives this book the fun quotient for me is the fact that it is not merely entertaining. Ozick's prose is can be fluid or sharp but is always tinged by whimsy. Her humor is sophisticated. She can reference the Kabbalah, Shakespeare, and Bloomsbury in a single paragraph - and does. This is a bookish romp.
9 comments:
Just discovered Ozick earlier this year with The Shawl. Went out and bought Heir to the Glimmering World, but still need to read it. I'll look into this one, too!
Looks like fun. Is that a Newberry book, I can't really see the sticker.
Mine is here
This book sounds delightful! I'm not familiar with this author, so thanks for introducing me!!
I have not heard of this one. Love your description of the writing. Will have to take a closer look.
JoAnn - This was my first full length Ozick work. What did you think of what you read?
Busy - Actually, no, it's a National Book Award thingy. This is not really a book for kids.
Lisa & Christine - I waited a long time to check her out myself and now I am so glad I did!
Looks like a fun book--great review!
Ted,
I thought Ozick's writing was wonderful! The Shawl combines a very short story (entitled The Shawl) about a woman in in Nazi concentration camp with a novella (Rosa), which picks up 30 years later when the woman is living in Miami. The story is rather grim and brutal, but it is tempered by the novella... which even offers a glimmer of hope at the end. I'm really looking forward to reading her novel soon. Sounds like The Puttermesser Papers should go on my wish list, too!
Hello, Ted! I haven't read a novel by Ozick yet, although based on what you've said, I think I'll give that novel a try.
I'll just find this novel in the bookstores. I think our local bookstores only have Trust and Heir to the Glimmering World. I've been turned off by the doorstop proportions of Trust though.
I've never heard of Ozick. I love that I'm being introduced to new-to-me authors via BTT.
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