Editor-in-chief
at Simon & Schuster by age 28, book critic of The New Yorker a
year later, and a public intellectual of the first rank, Clifton
Fadiman (1904-1999) set a high bar, in both the literary and
oenological worlds.
His
love of literature was rivaled only by an ardent appreciation of fine
wine. If his daughter, Anne, has been more than capable of following
in his writerly footsteps, forging an identity entirely her own.
Establishing a passion for the exalted grape has been much the
greater challenge, one taste the journalist admits she may never
acquire.
Anne
Fadiman, currently writer-in-residence at Yale, is best known for her
National Book Critics Circle Award-winning “The Spirit Catches You
and You Fall Down” (2012), a nonfiction account of the conflict
between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family
from Laos. But she is also the author of the essay collections “At
Large and At Small” and “Ex Libris.”
Unlike
her father's books, hers are still in print. A principal reason she
undertook this arresting memoir of their relationship was to address
that regrettable state of affairs, and to acquaint contemporary
readers with his exceptional erudition, expertise and wit.
For
much of his life, and despite his manifest accomplishments, the
senior Fadiman fought an array of insecurities, not the least of
which was his ethnic heritage. Born into a secular Jewish family in
Brooklyn, he buried his background beneath WASP-ish sensibilities and
pursuits from his college days forward.
These
preferences were not pretensions. They were cultivated out of a
genuine appreciation, though motivated at least in part by
humiliations endured as a young man and a desire to be a player in
the dominant culture rather than a perpetual outsider.
Though
his distaste moderated late in life, Fadiman believed that Jewishness
was a cultural and career impediment, and either directly or
indirectly communicated this message to his children.
In
contrast, the author's mother, Annalee, was of mixed Presbyterian and
Mormon stock, an accomplished journalist and screenwriter who gave up
her career for marriage (an error daughter Anne would not make).
Read the original review on: http://www.postandcourier.com
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