I’ve already blogged about my negative response to Tova Reich’s novel My Holocaust and the NYTimes’ similar critique.
And, indeed, the first wave of reviews which were extremely laudatory, seems to have given way to a second, more critical, wave. Most recently, the Jewish Week‘s Gary Rosenblatt has thrown in his two cents.
Rosenblatt cites Reich’s letter to the editor in last week’s NYT Book Review and sums up the letter and the novel well:
Reich…has solid Jewish literary and communal credentials. But her letter to the editor in the New York Times Book Review last Sunday expressing contempt for Margolick and his review, written as a letter from a minor character in her book, is Exhibit A of her style in the novel: subtle as a sledgehammer, embarrassing and decidedly unfunny. (MORE)
I’m not noting this latest jab in order to further insult Reich. I have real issues with book reviews that seem unnecessarily harsh. But I believe this novel is seriously problematic — as literature and Holocaust writing — and the early, glowing reviews deserve to be counterbalanced.
