Review by Choice Review
The 14 essays in this volume offer a useful and readable scholarly introduction to this Nobel Prize laureate. A Sephardic Jew born in Bulgaria, Canetti found in the German language his instrument of expression. Like Franz Kafka, he discovered in the cultural roots of the Central European world a home in which he could best express himself. And, like Kafka, he was a minority inside a minority, a linguistic orphan in whom the Ladino language (a variation on Spanish spoken by descendants of Spanish Jews) formed the foundation of his European temperament. Lorenz (Univ. of Illinois, Chicago) provides an elegant introduction to this collection, and one of the essays. The other essays are the work of leading scholars, and they offer an excellent overview of the historical, philosophical, linguistic, and thematic criticism of a remarkable 20th-century writer who witnessed and wrote about the horrors of his age. These essays will help readers understand Canetti as no previous volume has. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. S. Gittleman Tufts University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
