The Puttermesser Papers

by Cynthia Ozick

Book Overview

With dashing originality and in prose that sings like an entire choir of sirens, Cynthia Ozick relates the life and times of her most compelling fictional creation. Ruth Puttermesser lives in New York City. Her learning is monumental. Her love life is minimal (she prefers pouring through Plato to romping with married Morris Rappoport). And her fantasies have a disconcerting tendency to come true - with disastrous consequences for what we laughably...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679777393
• ISBN13: 9780679777397
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Death Is The Ultimate Truth

In Ozick's book, "The Puttermesser Papers" the reader encounters brilliance, insight and literary wisdom which is perhaps unsurpassed. The book presents the dilemma of a highly trained and highly intelligent and highly well read protagonist, who observes her life and presents her life philosophy, as it tangentially touches the rest of the world. Despite this life of mostly solitude and unhappiness there is the incisive uncovering of a universality of man/woman. The book discusses the cycles of life, and afterlife, through the eyes of the protagonist, Puttermesser. Her life starts on a good footing; she makes certain decisions that are done mostly for ethical and aesthetic reasons. The changes make her happier, sometimes, and unhappy most of the time. Nonetheless, she perseveres. She stumbles through life's pitfalls and works them through, both professionally and personally. In fact, with a little help from some spiritual friends, she rises to exalted levels of power. But, then the cycle changes. Those same friends that got her to high places, conspire to ruin this achievement, and in fact are successful at destroying it. She becomes a pariah in her own town, in her own neighborhood. And she sadly watches as all she has accomplished comes undone. At the nadir of her life, she dies. And she does not just die, she is murdered. But that is not where the story ends. The story continues into Paradise, the Garden of Eden, Heaven, where she finds what she did not really expect. In Paradise, she finds that it is only necessary for one to 'think it so,' and it is so, in Paradise. But similarly to real life, all things must pass, and thus whatever one thinks into existence in Paradise, is also destined to disappear. And thus, Ozick reveals, that Paradise is not only Heaven, but also Hell simultaneously: A simulacrum of life. And thus, Ozick leaves us with the age old question: Is it better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all? Or, as Ozick put it "Better never to have loved than loved at all. Better never to have risen than had a fall." The book is recommended for all highly read people as the literary references are many. And the uses of them are brilliant. In addition, the book is recommended to anyone who is trying to answer the question of love, in terms of whether it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. The book provides spiritual, mundane and metaphysical thoughts on the cycle of life and afterlife, that provide highly provocative concepts to consider with regard to that question.

Clearly not for everyone

As others have already pointed out, to call this a novel is misleading. While it can be read as a novel (as I did and you should), "The Puttemesser Papers" is actually a compilation of independent short stories revolving around a dominant character: Ruth Puttermesser. The different sections could be read in any order and you could love it (or hate it, I suppose) just as much. Having never read anything of Cynthia Ozick's, I was anxious to find out whether she measured up to the National Book Award Finalist sticker on the cover or whether she would be just another pretentious modern voice full of intellect but ultimately lacking in storytelling ability, like say Jonathan Franzen in "The Corrections." Well, fear not, Ozick is a superb storyteller and a prose stylist. She not only commands the English language as well as anyone, but she does so while combining vivid characters, intelligent insights into modern life, great observational detail, and interesting trivia. And she manages to do it in service to subtle plots that have a great deal to say about life, love, happiness, the illusiveness of satisfation and our stubborn resistance to learning. I don't want to discuss the storylines, I leave that to other reviewers. Ultimately, I think any plot summaries are a disservice in this case, as the plots are somehow almost secondary to everything else going on in the stories, mainly Puttermesser's rich interior life. Now some criticism: this book has the potential to enrage a few readers with its frequent allusions to literary, philosophical, political, musical and historical esoterica and its sprinkling of foreign phrases. I don't see a lot of younger people appreciating it; but it's not just age that might impede enjoyment, you need to be somewhat well rounded. The more cultured and well read you are, the more you will enjoy it. That's not to pat myself on the back, and I'm certainly not trying to put anyone off, it's just truthful. This isn't Stephen King or Michael Crichton. There aren't any cliffhangers here, no mystery or suspense, no real shock value. Yes, there are some surreal fantasy elements early on in the Xanthippe section (which is something of an updating of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein), but these are mostly subtle, character-driven stories. While I consider this to be great fiction, I don't expect "The Puttemesser Papers" to be described as a classic 100 years from now because its appeal is too limited, and it's not really a novel. This is a shame, really, because Ruth Puttermesser is a great character and these are truly great stories with a lot to say. And Ozick says it efficiently and entertainingly.

Brilliant.

No, this book is not for everyone--it is for those people who love books so much they cannot imagine how anyone could not. Puttermesser, as a character, is a variation on the ideal reader: she wants the world to match the perfection of the written word. Ozick is erudite, but why is this a failing? In some of her previous work she lets the erudition overcome the story and characters, but I think she succeeded in balancing the two poles of her storytelling with her creation of Puttermesser. This is beautiful book, if only for the final chapter, which among other things, confronts the central difficulties of existence in a provocative and harrowing manner.This is a book about Justice, Love and Reading. Highly recommended.

Utility or Futility? The Tale of a Bitter--Butter--Knife

By combining a good eye, sharp wit, and lighthearted cynicism, the award-winning author Cynthia Ozick writes the ultimate parable about the fatalistic idealism that disheartens every true rationalist in her compilation, "Puttermesser Papers". Ruth Puttermesser is a cerebral, yet philosophical Jewish Manhattanite. As we journey through different episodes in her life, Puttermesser searches for identity, experiments occassionally in love, and struggles to realize her ideals. Ozick's main purpose eventually shows itself to be the exploration of the ghastly possibility that failures in life sometimes occur not necessarily because we dont have the drive to fulfill our ideals, but that ideals are simply ideals and can never be realized in a world like ours. Puttermesser demonstrates this (yet never seems to see it until the end; after all she IS a rationalist) through failed love affairs, the destruction of her brilliant law career by an unqualified colleague, an initially successful but ultimately disasterous and futile tenure as the esteemed mayor of New York City, her attempts to use her legal skills to acquire citizenship for her Muscovite cousin (who in actuality only came to America to earn money), her murder and rape (in that order), and finally Ozick's final discourse, on Puttermesser and the meaning of Paradise. The same point is demonstrated as Puttermesser, a person whose thoughts are seldom erratic, besides her occasional fits of self-delusion (I remind you AGAIN, she IS a rationalist) fails yet time and time again in her very logical and carefully calculated efforts to do what every scientist and rationalist has always tried to do; to attempt to better their lives by analyzing a problem, and trying to solve it. Her motives seem attainable, well-planned, and surprisingly logical; yet she is strangely baffled, however, as reality falls short of her ideals every time. The final passages of the book explain Puttermesser's realization (after death) that Paradise, the word she gives to the