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She notes that he frequently read the
"human interest in literature rather
Bible and Psalms, and that his prayer
than a technical interest or purely lin-
book was full of underlining, although
guistic interest." He characterizes
he never attended synagogue.
Kazin's style as having a "tremendous
"He was not indifferent to Judaism.
eruptive vitality" with "strong conti-
It was like an unhappy marriage."
nuities" between his autobiographical
About her moving to Israel, he was
and critical writing.
"really broken-hearted,"
Michael Kazin,
she says, although she
the writer's son who
is pleased that during
is an author and pro-
c lOCt and the
his last week she was
fessor of history at
able to talk to him
American University,
about why she loves
notes that his father's
living there. He was
great gift was to
reassured, she says, and
write about novelists
realized it "didn't mean
with the lyricism of a
I had become ultra-
novelist."
Orthodox or right
He adds: "He
wing."
never stopped loving
Kazin's sister Pearl
the writers he began
Bell, also a writer and
loving. He added
literary critic, says that
more. "
he was never close to
Perhaps the last
Judaism as a religion,
book Kazin read was
but long interested in
an advance galley of
Jewish culture.
Ted Solotaroff's
He was "cool toward
upcoming autobiog-
In his last published book,
the religious establish-
raphy, Truth Comes in "God and the American
ment," as Michael Kazin
Blows. Solotaroff, an
Writen" Kazin explores how a
points
out. His father
author, critic and for- dozen of America's finest writers
"had
a
deep spiritual
mer literary editor a
— from Hawthorne to
longing
and wrote about
generation younger
Faulkner — and an American
it. Everything he wrote,
than Kazin, says that president — Kazin's hero,
everything he was, came
shortly before he
Abraham Lincoln — struggle
out of being Jewish." As
died, Kazin dictated
in solitude to make sense of
he says in New York Jew,
some kind words to
God.
"the Jews are my uncon-
his wife as a blurb for
scious."
the book. For
If Kazin had been able to finish the
Solotoroff, Kazin's "experience of read-
book he was working on, his Jewish
ing his way through the classics of
identity might have been illuminated.
American literature was the guide that
The book was to have been titled Jews;
I and many others followed."
it was to be a personal vision of Jewish
A former student comments that
history and culture.
Kazin taught the way he read, present-
His son, along with Kazin's wife
ing a story and weaving interesting
writer Judith Dunford, will review the
connections and interpretations. His
manuscript to see if it can be published.
friends and family say that Kazin, a
As he requested, Kazin had a small
grandfather and step-grandfather who
funeral service and his body was cre-
married 4 times, thrived on great con-
mated. It wasn't a Jewish service, his
versation, good food and walking.
son says, although he said Kaddish. In
Eva Fogelman, a psychologist and
New York Jew, Kazin writes about
author who is Kazin's cousin, recalls
"shakenly" saying Kaddish at his own
visiting the Kazins as a child on
father's grave.
Sunday mornings, when he'd already
"My proudest memory of my father
be at his typewriter, in an apartment
is that when I was a boy and stood
filled floor to ceiling with books. "He
with him on Sunday mornings as he
became a role model for me in terms
waited in the crowd of house painters
of thinking of books and writing as
on Pitkin Avenue to be tapped for a
something very important."
new job, he would shyly but with
For someone so up front about
unmistakable delight introduce me as
being Jewish — who titled a memoir
his Kaddish." A memorial service for
New York Jew — Kazin seemed to
Kazin will be held in the Ell. 0
have a complicated relationship to
Judaism. "It's hard to imagine some-
Sandee Brawarsky is a freelance writer
one as obsessed by Judaism and so lit-
based in New York City.
tle comforted by it," his daughter says.
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Detroit Jewish News
7/24
1998
85