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A review by jayshay
Heir to the Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick
4.0
I am not usually one of those people who can read a book for the language. I'm a story guy. These days I seem to read more fantasy and science-fiction than the lit category. Ozick is one of the exceptions though. I find how she writes, while not the showy pyrotechnics of other far less interesting writers, to be simply delightful. The Glimmering World is another example of this.
Do I get all the connections between the Karaites (Jewish Protestants? anti-offical interpretation of the Jewish holy texts, please forgive my deeply ignorant summation) and the Bear Boy? Nope. But the brief flights of either the father going off on his historical/philosophical/religious sermons or the sections of the Bear Boy going through a Christopher Robin hell are more than worth the price of admission.
And then there is the whole messy family of refugees, the Mitwissers, driven from Nazi Europe. And then frustrating, ultimately slimey Bertran and the idealogue Ninel! Perhaps the least interesting is the conduit character who serves as the view point for the entire novel - Rose.
Do I get all the connections between the Karaites (Jewish Protestants? anti-offical interpretation of the Jewish holy texts, please forgive my deeply ignorant summation) and the Bear Boy? Nope. But the brief flights of either the father going off on his historical/philosophical/religious sermons or the sections of the Bear Boy going through a Christopher Robin hell are more than worth the price of admission.
And then there is the whole messy family of refugees, the Mitwissers, driven from Nazi Europe. And then frustrating, ultimately slimey Bertran and the idealogue Ninel! Perhaps the least interesting is the conduit character who serves as the view point for the entire novel - Rose.