Sunday Jews

by Hortense Calisher

Book Overview

Hortense Calisher has been hailed as "stand[ing] vividly with Cather and Fitzgerald" (Cynthia Ozick). In this, her latest and most lauded novel, she explores a family united in blood yet divided by ideas. Son Charles hopes to be a Supreme Court justice; family beauty Nell has children by different lovers; art expert Erika has a nose job; and artist Zach has two wives. Their mother, infamous in Israel, born of a well-to-do Boston background but no...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156027453
• ISBN13: 9780156027458
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 712 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Sunday Jew.

Look this book is written for people who are truly avid readers, yes alot of characters to keep up with but if you choose the book to read then you new what a great deal of patience you was up against. The author done an excellent job as far as I am concern she gave me my money's wroth. If you don't like long and especially challenging books do not READ them and then try to fault the author of a great read. I feel that books as such maybe should come with a warning saying CAUTION not for fast and unable to keep up with an extreme amount of characters please do not attempt to read!! REMMBER this is just my opinion. I love the book but was ready to read only this book usually I am able to read 2-3 books at the same time but would not even try with this book.

Difficult, but worthwhile

Getting into this book, which its long sentences (no, not really like Henry James--Calisher's style is not poetic, but is deeply probing and thoughtful) and many characters, is difficult. But the story of this family is really very absorbing. Making the two principal characters an archeologist and a philospher is a foil for the writer's style of questioning, analyzing, and reflecting on all aspects of family life, religion, culture, money-making, art.... But it does work. I related to the characters and to the emotional strength of the book and the family.

delightful family drama

Jewish Zipporah Zangwill married Catholic Peter Duffy. They have five children together. However, over the years, the former philosophy professor Peter's health degenerates until he becomes mentally incompetent and physically incapacitated. Zipporah takes Peter to Italy so his fiends and peers will see how far he has deteriorated. In Italy, Zipporah receives help with her spouse from an Israeli nurse, Debra Cohen, who vanishes immediately following Peter death.As the years go by, widow Zipporah inherits a fortune from a friend and takes a wealthy lover. She is now a senior citizen and her five children are now middle aged with adult children of their own. Finding a clue to Debra's disappearance, Zipporah's grandson Bertram searches for the missing Sabra though many years have passed since she vanished.This is an interesting character study that looks closely at a mixed religious family with a Catholic patriarch and a Jewish matriarch guiding them over the years. The story line enables the reader to see life as Zipporah, Peter, their children and grandchildren live it. Though the action is limited, fans of a deep slice of life will relish this delightful family drama.Harriet Klausner

A life revealed

A life revealed, this book examines one family's experience over three generations, as viewed from the matriarch's retrospective position. It conveys the acquired wisdom and philosophical insight of the family elder, which frequently seems quite profound. This perspective conveyed is rarely accomplished in fiction and seems a rare gem acquired over a lifetime. Sometimes the thought process is difficult to follow however and completing this work can seem somewhat of a labor. The reader who completes this task will likely feel well rewarded and possess a greater apreciation of the threads that tie generation to generation.