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A review by ellenrhudy
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
4.0
This is the first time I've read Ozick - finally checking out this book after reading a NYTimes column mentioning her as one of our greatest writers. I think huge chunks of this novel probably went right over my head...I'd be curious to reread it after reading Henry James's "The Ambassadors", to understand how this novel draws on it, and would also like to read it with more of an eye to the historical moment (1952) than I did this time around.
All that said, this is really a beautiful novel and a totally engrossing read, not at all what I'd expected from a book about a 40-something school teacher trying to retrieve her nephew from Paris. There is not a single character in this novel that is likeable, but I'm still somehow invested in their inner lives and in following what happens to them. Bra, especially - tracking her interactions with her ex-husband is fascinating and I rooted for her even as I cringed at many of her other actions. Julian and Iris, her brother's children, are both hideous spoiled people; and her brother Marvin is almost a tragically unlikeable figure as a result of his attempts to detach himself from his Jewish ancestry.
Also, I want to remember this one line: "Her guidebook showed no concern for the tourist's bladder" (5). Too accurately captures every guidebook I've ever owned.
All that said, this is really a beautiful novel and a totally engrossing read, not at all what I'd expected from a book about a 40-something school teacher trying to retrieve her nephew from Paris. There is not a single character in this novel that is likeable, but I'm still somehow invested in their inner lives and in following what happens to them. Bra, especially - tracking her interactions with her ex-husband is fascinating and I rooted for her even as I cringed at many of her other actions. Julian and Iris, her brother's children, are both hideous spoiled people; and her brother Marvin is almost a tragically unlikeable figure as a result of his attempts to detach himself from his Jewish ancestry.
Also, I want to remember this one line: "Her guidebook showed no concern for the tourist's bladder" (5). Too accurately captures every guidebook I've ever owned.