• About Kathy Shaidle
  • Kathy Shaidle: Donate
  • Kathy Shaidle: Privacy policy

5 Feet of Fury

Kathy Shaidle's blog. Est. 2000

“The political consequences of Norman Mailer and Norman Podhoretz’s friendship”

July 29, 2017 By Kathy Shaidle

Paula Marantz Cohen writes:

How much influence could a book review possibly have?

Judging from Norman Mailer’s review of Norman Podhoretz’s 1967 memoir, Making It, a lot. Serving as a catchall and a coda for the collective judgment of liberal intellectuals of the day, Mailer’s review would help turn Podhoretz against his progressive roots and harness his exceptional energy and intellect on behalf of neoconservatism, a movement that played a role in the election of Ronald Reagan, the two Bushes, and Donald Trump. (…)

There is much else that is original about the book that went unnoticed if it was not denigrated at the time it appeared: a probing analysis of the joys and agonies of writing; a wonderful apologia for the creativity of all literary genres, even book reviews; an explanation of the role of the editor and what it means to be a good one. Podhoretz also celebrates the delights of American culture at an earlier point than most intellectuals did — certainly earlier than the academy, which had yet to fully accept the field of American Studies. Finally, he addresses the importance of ethnicity which has become so central to the academic curriculum (ironically, now condemned as “identity politics” by neoconservatives).

Reading the book today and noting its many strengths makes the negative response to its publication seem almost perverse. It is shocking to see how uniformly the Partisan Review family excoriated the book. They were a lynch mob of intimates, and they determined what everyone else thought. (When I recently asked my 92-year-old father, a Partisan Review reader in his younger days, about his opinion of Making It, he grimaced, then admitted that he hadn’t read it, only the reviews.)

 

More from my site

  • Pat Buchanan: Establishment in a panic over Trump’s ‘election results’ comment
  • Some days I hate my country somethin’ seriousSome days I hate my country somethin’ serious
  • Alt headline: Homeless get jobs rather than eat gefilte fishAlt headline: Homeless get jobs rather than eat gefilte fish
  • ‘Tommy Christopher’ sounds like a kid who has to wear a protective helmet if you know what I mean‘Tommy Christopher’ sounds like a kid who has to wear a protective helmet if you know what I mean

Filed Under: Kathy Shaidle

« “Targets” (1968): “Proof there are still good movies to be made”
Julie Burchill: “Diana was the people’s diva” »
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Archives

Copyright © 2022 · Magazine Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in