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Rating: 
Summary: Much more, and less, than an autobiography...
Review: What a life! It's hard to begrudge Kazin for dropping names like a Hollywood hopeful, because the people in his life, and this book, are some of the most interesting and influential Americans of this century. With a fair mix of Manhattanite pretension and honest intellect, Kazin traces the trajectory of his life, or lives, as a New York Jew. In doing so, he gestures towards everthing from turn of the century midwest American hardship to provinciality to the changing face of the American Left and the various outposts of American Intellectualism: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia. In an appropriate irony, his intimate, personal story is almost consumed by the focus on public discourse and history. Kazin's story is the story of a mood, a climate; it is a history, primarily, and one told by an admirable intellectual whose personal life is occassionally shared with as much honesty and effect as is necessary to maintain the grand, sweeping vision of the story. An excellent look at 20th Century American intellectual history from a distinctly American viewpoint.
Rating:
Summary: Much more, and less, than an autobiography...
Review: What a life! It's hard to begrudge Kazin for dropping names like a Hollywood hopeful, because the people in his life, and this book, are some of the most interesting and influential Americans of this century. With a fair mix of Manhattanite pretension and honest intellect, Kazin traces the trajectory of his life, or lives, as a New York Jew. In doing so, he gestures towards everthing from turn of the century midwest American hardship to provinciality to the changing face of the American Left and the various outposts of American Intellectualism: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia. In an appropriate irony, his intimate, personal story is almost consumed by the focus on public discourse and history. Kazin's story is the story of a mood, a climate; it is a history, primarily, and one told by an admirable intellectual whose personal life is occassionally shared with as much honesty and effect as is necessary to maintain the grand, sweeping vision of the story. An excellent look at 20th Century American intellectual history from a distinctly American viewpoint.
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