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lazygal's review against another edition
3.0
The author does a great job of writing in a very old-fashioned style, one more suited the books my parents and grandparents read rather than modern literature. That's not a bad thing, just a caution for those looking for a zippy read: this will take time to digest.
Looking back over his long association with the Temple Academy for Boys, as a student and then as a trustee, Lloyd Wilkinson Petrie takes his time getting to the meat of his story. There are meanderings around the life of the school, his family's connections to Sir Flinders Petrie, how the trustees work, his Remington and myriad other topics, while we want to get to his friendship with Ben-Zion Elephantine. When Ben-Zion appears, it's still very much overshadowed by the rest of Lloyd's memoir, and how that friendship was ruptured doesn't appear to play as big a role in the written story as we're led to believe.
Another quibble is that phrase "the subtle anti-Semitism that pervaded the school's ethos" in the blurb. It's not subtle!
eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.
Looking back over his long association with the Temple Academy for Boys, as a student and then as a trustee, Lloyd Wilkinson Petrie takes his time getting to the meat of his story. There are meanderings around the life of the school, his family's connections to Sir Flinders Petrie, how the trustees work, his Remington and myriad other topics, while we want to get to his friendship with Ben-Zion Elephantine. When Ben-Zion appears, it's still very much overshadowed by the rest of Lloyd's memoir, and how that friendship was ruptured doesn't appear to play as big a role in the written story as we're led to believe.
Another quibble is that phrase "the subtle anti-Semitism that pervaded the school's ethos" in the blurb. It's not subtle!
eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.
tillymunn7_'s review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
mallen317's review against another edition
4.0
The prose in this novel is absolutely stunning and I cannot wait to pick up more of Cynthia Ozick’s work
hattie's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism
robbyreader's review against another edition
5.0
Ozick has still got it! Sometimes you can start to read a book and just know you're in good hands. This was definitely one of those books! But I don't think this novella is for everyone. For me, the voice was spot-on. But the character talks in a rhythm of a bygone era that may not appeal to everyone: think Edith Wharton's pretentious cousin. But I loved it...an engaging character study told with wonderfully written prose.
A+, Ms. O!
A+, Ms. O!
kairhone's review against another edition
challenging
tense
slow-paced
3.75
Petrie the protagonist chronicles his boyhood years while living in the repurposed shell of his prior boarding school. His recollections center on his fixated pride of his father's treasure seeking in Egypt around 1918 and the odd friendship between himself a Jewish boy. There is a homoerotic lean to his description of their playing chess and falling to the floor in a tangle of skinny limbs. He returns again and again to this memory with shame. Too, he mentions with progressively more detail that he had a lifelong affair with his secretary, Margaret, whom he called Peg. Very few mentions of his wife, Miranda.
Petrie’s father and his distant cousin participated in did indeed discover the remains of a temple, papyrus scrolls and other evidence proving the presence of a previously unknown 5th-century B.C. Jewish community on Egypt’s Elephantine Island. But that community had long since vanished, making Elefantin’s story, if not his very existence, fantastical. Ozick leaves it to the reader to decide the truth of Petrie’s encounter with Elefantin and his elusive ancient faith.
Very reminiscent of Remains of the Day and/or Brideshead Revisited.