POETRY CONT.

lations that includes a canto from Mr. Pin-
sky's award-winning "The Inferno of
Dante."

— Bonni Goldberg

`Odd Mercy'

By Gerald Stern
W. W. Norton & Co., 112 pgs., $18.95.

G

erald Stem's poetry layers images,
ideas and memory, filling the read-
er with the same sense of awe and
indignation with which Mr. Stem
himself seems to perceive the activity of
the world.
In plain language he pays homage to
spirit and intellect through a myriad of
references which recall Whitman,
Socrates, Krishnamurti and Ezekiel. At
the same time, his poems are populated
by the familiar: Toyota, Iced Tea, Oliver
North.
With its rich, incantatory texture, the
rhythms and cadences of Mr. Stern's po-
etic voice are distinctly Jewish. His work
is as deeply personal as it is political. It is
informed with the far-reaching perspec-
tive that, if one is lucky, comes with age.

Through Lee's disapproval
of her parents, Ms. Isaacs lam-
poons the Whites' affected air
and their abandonment of
their Jewish identity. "It's true
what they say about them,"
grumbles Ginger Taylor, star-
ing at the opulent spread, com-
plete with a glazed ham, that
the Whites lay out for a Sun-
day dinner for the two fami-
lies. "They know the price of
everything and the value of
nothing. They wanted us to fig-
ure out how much it cost. Have
you ever seen such a display?"
Lily "Lee" White is a strong,
likable female character who
is not afraid to speak up for
herself or for the underdog.
Her eventual return to Ju-
daism is naturally complete by
the time she introduces her
only child, Valerie, to her her-
itage. Ms. Isaacs once again
has written the perfect sum-
mer page-turner — a novel
that neither insults the read-
er's intelligence nor requires
advanced degrees to follow the
plot.

— Melinda Greenberg

`Kraven
Images'

TH E DE TROI T JE WIS H NE W S

By Alan Isler
Bridge Works Publishing Co.,
256 pgs., $21.95.

50

In Odd Mercy, Mr. Stern also is intense,
self-conscious and constantly reminded
of his mortality. He is at his best in the
poem "Sixteen Minutes," which begins
with the poet observing clouds and turns
into a comparison between the Jews and
the Irish.
Half of this volume is devoted to a
longer work, "Hot Dog." In the tradition
of Hart Crane and Frank O'Hara, Mr.
Stern elegizes New York City from the
vantage point of lower Manhattan. It is
an evocative tour in 17 sections that en-
compasses past and present, interior and
exterior. Walt Whitman, St. Augustine
and Hot Dog, a street person, are visited
and revisited as city and community are
scrutinized. In the end, Mr. Stem leaves
us with "trees still bare/but starting to
turn a little and two or three birdlets/get-
ting ready again for the next eternity."

—BG

icholas Kraven is the lik-
able, though not ad-
mirable, hero of Alan
Isler's second novel,
"Kraven Images." A-British-
born Jew who teaches English
literature at a college in the
Bronx, Kraven is a man who
seems always out of context.
Through a series of hilari-
ous misadventures on two con-
tinents, the 38-year-old
Kraven encounters an aphro-
disiac-wielding Brunhilde, a
troika of strippers peddling a
burlesque version of Hamlet,
"and several disturbed and
vindictive students. Through-
out the book Kraven is haunt-
ed — and the reader is
distracted — by memories of
his wartime childhood as well
as an assortment daunts and
uncles that is impossible to
keep straight.
Why Mr. Isler continually
chooses to interrupt the flow
of his entertaining narrative
with these bleak digressions is
unclear until the final pages of

the book. Even after
several important
revelations about
Kraven's past, it is
difficult to connect
them to his troubles
as an adult.
We know that
Kraven is searching
for something as well
as running from
something, but be-
cause he lacks the
capacity for intro-
spection, we are too
often left guessing
how he feels and
what motivates him.
We are entertained
by his encounters,
but seldom moved.
The novel has been touted
as a satire of academia, but the
humor is so broad it really
qualifies as farce. From the ti-
tles of Kraven's published
works — such as The Womb,

the Tomb and the Loom in
Shakespeare's Major Tragedies
— to the highly improbable

convergence of half a dozen
separate relationships in Lon-
don, the author outdoes him-
self with each ensuing plot
twist.
Mr. Isler's first book, The

Prince of West End Avenue,

won rave reviews and the 1994
National Jewish Book Award
for fiction; his second is un-
likely to fare as well. But de-
spite its shortcomings, Kraven
Images is a fast and fun read,
filled with vivid description,
clever wordplay and unforget-
table characters.

— Christine Stutz

`Mona
in the
Promised
Land'

By Gish Jen
Knopf 304 pgs., $24.

e promised land in the
title of this second nov-
1 is the transparently
named Scarshill, N.Y.
Like its real-life counterpart,
Scarshill cum Scarsdale is a
predominantly Jewish suburb
in Westchester County. It is
now home to the hard-work-
ing Changs, Chinese immi-
grants whose early story was
told in Ms. Jen's spirited first
novel, Typical American. The

Te

a sense 'the new Jews" on the
literary scene. It is a place\
where Gish Jen and her gen-
eration can shape soft autobi-
ographical material into the
more varied texture of fiction.

— JJ3F

BIOGRAPHY

`Einstein:
A Life'

By Denis Brian
John Wiley & Sons,
509 pgs., $30.

Changs have moved to
Scarshill for its upscale ad-
dress and excellent school sys-
tem. In the process, they seem
to have metamorphosed into
Westchester's "new Jews — a
model minority and Great
American success. They know
they belong in the promised
land."
At the center of the novel is
Mona Chang's conversion to
Judaism. Her decision to be-
come a Jew is the spiritual
equivalent of cross-dressing
and Ms. Jen exploits those hu-
morous effects without sink-
ing into sarcasm or satire.
Although ethnicity seems to be
malleable in Mona's world, in
the end it strengthens person-
al identity. While studying to
become a Jew, Mona's rabbi
tells her "the more Jewish you
become the more Chinese
you'll be."
Even her efforts to conceal
her new religion from her par-
ents can be regarded as one of
the oldest strategies for Jew-
ish survival. On one level her
secretiveness is an under-
standable adolescent defense
against her parents' harsh dis-
approval. On a deeper level
Mona layers herself with var-
ious ethnicities to accommo-
date her shifting identities.
She becomes "Mona-also-
known-as-Ruth, a more or less
genuine Catholic Chinese
Jew."
Ms. Jen, who grew up in
Scarsdale, explores the comic
underside of a quintessential
American dilemma: the im-
migrant parent bewildered by
the American child's newfan-
gled ideas. Her work is part of
the first wave of Chinese
American writers who are in

(--/

ver the years, Albert
Einstein's scientific life
has been fully docu-
mented, but little of his
private world has been dis-
closed. Denis Brian's master-
ful biography uncovers that
personal life and, in the
process, offers some overlooked
facts.
One such incident is relat-
ed to Einstein's delayed
speech. He spoke very little be-
fore the age of 3, leading his
parents to believe throughout,,
his elementary school years
that he was mentally retard-
ed. For all of his intellectual
gifts, Einstein was not an ar-
rogant man and had little tol-
erance for pomposity. During
his time as a university stu-
dent, this seeming lack of def-
erence offended several of hiF,--/
professors and earned him
their reprobation.
By the time he was 26, Ein-
stein had published five major
research papers, one of which
included his legendary math-
ematical expression of the spe-
cial theory of relativity, e = me'.
Einstein's other theories over-
turned Newtonian physics and
revolutionized scientific think-
ing about matter, energy, time
and space.
However, this abstract
thinker was also a tireless
campaigner for human rights
and fervent supporter of Zion-c-__\
ism. While not religiously ob-
servant, Einstein considered
himself a deeply spiritual per-
son. Yet his altruism appears
to have been bestowed only
upon acquaintances. He was
not a warm or supportive fa-
ther or husband.
Mr. Brian's carefully re-'—\
searched and skillfully drawn
portrait of Einstein demon-

O