{"id":17574,"date":"2025-06-09T19:14:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T23:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=17574"},"modified":"2025-06-09T19:14:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T23:14:42","slug":"episode-642-david-denby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-642-david-denby","title":{"rendered":"Episode 642 – David Denby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 642:
\nDavid Denby<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_642_-_David_Denby.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“What if Jews had freedom they never had before, and they had it in the United States?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>With his fantastic new book, EMINENT JEWS<\/a> (Holt), writer and critic David Denby<\/a> explores the impact on American culture of Jews Unbound through profiles of Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer. We talk about how he selected his four subjects, how each of them came of age in an environment that Jews hadn’t experienced in millennia, the ways each handled the responsibilities of family against their careers, the difference between “Jew” and “Jewish,” and which one unfolded the most to him over the course of writing the book. We get into why Bernstein’s greatest role may have been as a teacher, how Mailer’s magnetism persisted way beyond its expiration date, how Friedan changed the world but was always challenged by her midwest upbringing, and whether Brooks was being disingenuous when he made musical numbers of our the Inquisition and Hitler. We also discuss judgements David made over the course of his career as a movie critic<\/a>, what he did when he finally gave up reviewing and how he eased back into the cinema, why he revisited the Lit Hum<\/a> course at Columbia a few years ago, after previously revisiting it 30+ years ago for Great Books<\/a>, his take on my my lightning round of classic lit questions, his non-Le Carr\u00e9 experience in East Berlin, his reaction to my parents taking me to History of the World: Part 1<\/a> when I was 9, and more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read EMINENT JEWS: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer<\/a>!<\/p>\n

“The centrality of the family in America is the greatest institution for American Jews, moreso than the synagogue.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n