The Literary Community: Selected Essays 1967-2007

Library Journal

Solotaroff has been a magazine and book editor, reviewer, essayist, and writing instructor and has authored various books, including two memoirs (Truth Comes in Blows; First Loves ). This collection includes previously published essays, some of which have been revised for this volume, as well as newer ones. Divided into five parts, the book in the first four sections primarily contains reviews-of fiction, biographies and autobiographies, poetry, and Jewish writing. Although they are well written, amusing, and judicious, they may not appeal to general readers. A major exception is Solotaroff's moving, personal, and thorough appreciation of the American critic Alfred Kazin, offering a balanced survey of his career. The final section, which includes five general pieces on authorship, presents expert and sympathetic advice and will be of interest to any young writer; especially good is the author's essay on the reasons he decided to abandon what would have been his first novel. This collection sheds light on the state of American literature and authorship. Recommended for upper-level and graduate academic collections.-Morris Hounion, New York City Coll. of Technology Lib., Brooklyn

TED SOLOTAROFF (1928-2008) was a distinguished editor, critic, lecturer and memoirist. He was the founding editor of New American Review, later American Review (1967-1977), the most widely read and influential literary magazine of its time. He previously had edited Commentary and Book Week and later was a senior editor at Harper & Row. He is the author of the memoirs Truth Comes in Blows, which received the 1998 PEN award for the art of the memoir, and First Loves.