Volume 25, Number 12 · July 20, 1978
Pioneers and Phantoms
By John Bayley
The Hill of Evil Counsel
by Amos Oz, translated by Nicholas de Lange
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 210 pp., $7.95
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
by Bruno Schulz, translated by Celina Wieniewska
Walker and Company, 192 pp., $8.95
Being in a generic way English or American has one big advantage: the self does not have the need to identify and project its image through nationality. As a rule the concepts of Americanness or Englishness have widened into a nullity that imposes little conscious obligation. One must find some other way of being oneself. On quitting the island my own grandfather thankfully dropped the task of being Irish. He did not seek to become English, but he entered the vague space where Englishness was hypothetically present, and there he remained. He did not even bother to practice that flip talent of dual nationality described by Elizabeth Bowen as being Irish when it suits and English when it does not.
Review, 3101 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |