Friday, November 4, 1983 21 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS o Book Editor Gives 2nd View of Cynthia Ozick's 'Cannibal Galaxy' calls Middle America, where he establishes an elementary, dual- curriculum school, with Jewish and general courses, with the financial backing of a wealthy Jewish be- nefactor. By CHARLES MADISON (Editor's note: Charles Madison presents a sec- ond look at Cynthia Ozick's The Cannibal Galaxy," which was first reviewed in the Oct. 21 Jewish News by Dr. Joseph Cohen.) With the publication of "The Cannibal Galaxy" (Knopf), Cynthia Ozick has become recognized as a wri- ter of solid distinction. More than most writers, she is fascinated by the meaning and preciseness of words and their combinations. Her writing is noted for its exactness, now and then re- sorting to dictionary words for fine connotation. Also, she is solidly learned in Hebrew lore as well as literature, and she makes use of this know- ledge with an aura of mysti- cal implications. This at times leads her stimulated imagination to deviate into the unusual, the fanciful — not always with the desired effect. The main character in "The Cannibal Galaxy" is Joseph Brill, who as a French-Jewish boy in the early 1940s is hidden from the Nazis by kind-hearted nuns. While in the secret CHARLES MADISON basement of the convent, he comes upon the library of a late bishop whose taste in literature was quite unor- thodox. Already indoctrinated by his rabbinic teacher, the books he now read opened his mind to a world ignored by his rabbi. After his liber- ation he becomes interested in astronomy and takes courses in the Sorbonne. Soon losing interest in his studies, and with his pa- rents and other members of his family having perished during the Holocaust, he decides to leave for the Un- ited States. Brill settles in what he THE DOWNTOWN SYNAGOGUE Wishes To Remind The Jewish Community Of Greater Detroit Of Our Services And Facilities. • DAILY MINYAN 8 a.m. & 5:15 p.m. Mon. thru Fri. 8 a.m. on the Sabbath 9 a.m. on Sunday • FOR SIMCHA CELEBRATIONS* Bar Mitzvahs Bat Mitzvahs Weddings And all other celebrations We have a reception hall. • REMEMBRANCE MEMORIAL PLATES AND PLAQUES FOR YOUR LOVED ONES ARE AVAILABLE "Participate In Your Priceless Jewish Heritage" THE DOWNTOWN SYNAGOGUE 1457 GRISWOLD ST. AT CLIFFORD DETROIT, MICH. 48226 961-9328 Honorary President George Bass Cantor Israel Idelsohn For more information please phone SYNAGOGUE OFFICE RABBI'S RESIDENCE Nothing seems to ad- vance from season to sea- son: "Nothing moved. No- thing altered. The first grade was always the first grade, the eighth grade al- ways the eighth. This know- ledge turned him. cold, it was the coldness of the cos- mos itself. The same, the same. The same — nature replaces, replaces identi- cally, replaces chillingly." This mediocre sameness in time dulls his mind, withers his early idealism, and he becomes stale, routinized, so that he ceases to read or even to think. Then Hester Lilt brought her little daughter Beulah to his school and his life takes a sudden turn. Lilt was an "Imagistre Linguis- tic Logician," a title foreign to him and the more intrigu- ing. Long an admirer of genius and a believer that genius begets genius, he was perturbed to find Beulah an ordinary, shy child — and her mother not in the least distressed by it. Learning that Lilt had written philosophic books and was highly in- tellectual, he sought to make her his friend, but found her aloof and stand-offish. When he telephones her, her at- titude is enigmatic and unresponsive. Czech Survivors Make Pilgrimage to Theresienstadt *at modest and reasonable rates President Ralph R. Goldsmith Rabbi • Noah M. Gamze D.D. For a time he is ani- mated by ambition and idealism. He makes the motto of the school ad astra, and seeks to de- velop the pupils into thinking and intelligent human beings. Before long he is distressed by the mediocrity that char- acterizes everything about him: the parents, the pupils, the general environment. 961-9328 968-4197 LONDON — Holocaust survivors now living in Czechoslovakia made their annual pilgrimage to the site of the Theresienstadt concentration camp last month, the International Council of Jews from Czechoslovakia reported. The visit concluded with a memorial service at the Ohre river, where the Nazis dumped the ashes of Jews who were killed in the camp. built to suit her. He becomes more sociable in his general relationships. When he learns of his wife's pregnancy — he had done so before their wedding — he begins to dream of having a son who would possess the genius he had longed for in his youth. With the passing years he is de- lighted to note how bright and creative his son has become, and con- CYNTHIA OZICK centrates on his intellec- With him in his 50s and tual development. her in her 50s, he thought that he would like to marry her. When she definitely discourages such a relation- ship, he yields to the friendly approach of the much younger school recep- tionist, a divorcee with a son of six. She intimates to Brill that she has no objection to marrying a man much older than herself, and he decides to make her his wife. He phones Lilt to tell her the news, and in the conver- sation he implies that all her philosophy was in fact developed to justify her at- titude to Beulah's medioc- rity, unaware that Lilt had hung up on him. He soon learns that she has obtained a teaching post in Paris and was going there with her daughter. Marriage makes a con- siderable change in Brill's life. At the urging of his wife, he has his quarters re- Ozick telescopes the years to show that the son grows up to be not a philosophic thinker but eager to become a businessman and money-maker. Brill sup- presses his disappointment, but in his inner, hardly- conscious self his pessimism with life increases. During this period Brill learns that Beulah, the timid, introspective child who had been judged a nonentity by the school psychologist and himself, and who had been sure that her mother had been deeply disappointed in her, had suddenly become popular as a painter and was fre- quently discussed in art journals. It hurt him to read in an interview with her that she had no recollection of hav- ing attended his school; also how wrong he had been in judging her future de- velopment. When Beulah was named the "Painter of the Year," Brill finds him- self thinking that Hester Lilt's apparent indifference to her daughter and her snobbishness toward him had altered his life for the worse. Indeed, he came to be- lieve that Lilt "had spoiled his life — had, in fact waylaid him, plun- dered and robbed him. In hindsight he knew he had been ambushed by Hes- ter Lilt." By this time he was in his 70s, retired and living in Florida, no longer in- terested in his wife and ac- cepting her sarcastic refer- ences to his old age with in- difference. He has con- cluded that human beings cannot be molded by exter- nal teaching and that mediocrity was the lot of most human beings. What distinguishes this brief novel is not only the excellence of the writing but the philosophy underlying it. The characters attain re- ality in the process of their portrayal, and the writing is heightened by the literary aptness of the similes and metaphors. It is the kind of story one cannot read on the run; overtones and intimations hold one's interest and stimulate thought and re- flection for those able to ap- preciate the beauty and pleasure of the nature of the story. , ARTHUR BRAVERMAN is pleased to announce The Opening of His Law Practice in Hollywood, Florida, concentrating in the fields of Real Estate, Commercial Litigation, Probate and Estate Plan- ning, In the Miami-Palm Beach area. 2450 Hollywood Boulevard, Suite 700 Hollywood, Florida 33020 Phone (305) 923-4444 Do You Have The Right Stuff 4 4, for The Dig Chill? Infant Campaign JERUSALEM (ZINS) — While Israel's infant mor- tality is among the lowest in the world — 12 per 1,000 births — the nation has started an experimental program in rural areas and development towns, where the rate is three times higher than in the cities. Mondoy-Sorurdoy 9:30-600 tennis time S E Corner Maple & Lohser Birmingham, MI 646-4475