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Heir To The Glimmering World Pa Cythia Ozick 0046442618809 Books

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Heir To The Glimmering World Pa Cythia Ozick 0046442618809 Books

This is a book full of mirrors, darkness, and, as the title indicates, glimmers. There are three families: the destitute Mitwisser family, refugees from Nazi Germany; the Meadows family, one of whom, Rose, the novel’s main narrator, comes to live with the Mitwissers as secretary and companion; and the A’Bair family, whose child, James, is transformed by his father into The Bear Boy, the subject of a series of wildly popular and lucrative children’s books. James also lives with the Mitwissers, although his appearances are sporadic, and it is his inheritance that keeps the Mitwisser family in food and shelter.

Even though the fathers of these families are wildly different, they are all, in their own ways absent. Professor Mitwisser is lost in his scholarly pursuit of an ancient and obscure Jewish sect. Rose’s father is a self-absorbed drunk, thief and gambler, as down on his luck as the professor, while James A’Bair, Sr. relates to his young son only as a commercial product. They are funhouse mirror distortions of what a father should be.

The mothers are missing, too. Elsa Mitwisser, a well-known scientist before she was driven out of Germany, is mentally unstable, her mind wrenched out of focus by the traumas of the flight from Germany. Rose’s mother died when she was a child. James A’Bair’s mother colludes in the father’s project to turn their child into cash.

And the children are orphans. Rose and James, although young have no living parents, while the five Mitwisser children run wild, with only the inconstant supervision of the oldest sister. Others, including Rose, her cousin Bertram, and James, take on the maternal role in interesting ways.

But it would be misleading to dwell too much on these parallels, since this is really a novel about the aloneness of human beings and their chasing after glimmers---books, money, security, love---to bring happiness to their lives. The book turns on the paradoxes of the ones who draw the glimmers into something more substantial and the ones who do not. Might it be better not to chase after glimmers at all?

M. Feldman


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Heir To The Glimmering World Pa Cythia Ozick 0046442618809 Books Reviews

I had to stick with this book until the end. It was a longer tale than I expected weaving in and out of the crossing paths of two or three main characters with family issues, philosophical ramblings, displacement during war time, fitting in, finding yourself, mental illness. There were hidden stories told in increments that slowly revealed the origin.
Would have enjoyed this book with fewer pages and less back and forth between characters.
I did like the story at times I could not put it away. However, there were times where I found myself just skimming over the description of so seemed ramblings of a character 's history.
The author taunts the reader with overly complicated words which add nothing to the story. At times it is repetitive. The plot (if there was one) was dull. I didn't enjoy the book.
Well-written story of a young woman who becomes secretary and companion to a German immigrant family during WWII.
Some depressing themes but includes good allegory and the dark humor of wartime.
Heir to the Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick is a strange, yet entirely realistic and believable novel. It's the story of Rosie, a poor teenage orphan who lands in the household of the Mitwissers, refugees from Hitler's Germany, as an amanuensis who becomes more of a family servant than a secretary. Told primarily from Rosie's point of view, it is of course the story of this family as well Professor Mitwisser, an out-of-touch philosopher who lives entirely in some remote and obscure corner of history; his wife Elsa, the madwoman in the attic; their eldest daughter Anneliese, three sons, and the unfortunately named baby Waltrout. Into their lives comes a mysterious benefactor, heir to an endless stream of money earned by his father from The Bear Boy, a series of world-famous children's books.

I can't say Heir is a page-turner, but it's compelling enough, and Ozick's writing is flawless. While I doubt the book is strictly autobiographical, I'd bet my typing fingers Ozick based it on her own early experiences as a secretary, having held quite a few equally oddball positions myself.

The best thing about this novel, though, is the ending it's been many years since I've read a book that so completely satisfied me in the end. Some readers will no doubt think it a bit too tidy, but I'm of the camp that eschews inconclusive denouements. It doesn't take a prophet to know that every story like life goes on--but I appreciate a book and an author that can deliver the goods in the final pages. Well done, Ms. Ozick!
This is a book full of mirrors, darkness, and, as the title indicates, glimmers. There are three families the destitute Mitwisser family, refugees from Nazi Germany; the Meadows family, one of whom, Rose, the novel’s main narrator, comes to live with the Mitwissers as secretary and companion; and the A’Bair family, whose child, James, is transformed by his father into The Bear Boy, the subject of a series of wildly popular and lucrative children’s books. James also lives with the Mitwissers, although his appearances are sporadic, and it is his inheritance that keeps the Mitwisser family in food and shelter.

Even though the fathers of these families are wildly different, they are all, in their own ways absent. Professor Mitwisser is lost in his scholarly pursuit of an ancient and obscure Jewish sect. Rose’s father is a self-absorbed drunk, thief and gambler, as down on his luck as the professor, while James A’Bair, Sr. relates to his young son only as a commercial product. They are funhouse mirror distortions of what a father should be.

The mothers are missing, too. Elsa Mitwisser, a well-known scientist before she was driven out of Germany, is mentally unstable, her mind wrenched out of focus by the traumas of the flight from Germany. Rose’s mother died when she was a child. James A’Bair’s mother colludes in the father’s project to turn their child into cash.

And the children are orphans. Rose and James, although young have no living parents, while the five Mitwisser children run wild, with only the inconstant supervision of the oldest sister. Others, including Rose, her cousin Bertram, and James, take on the maternal role in interesting ways.

But it would be misleading to dwell too much on these parallels, since this is really a novel about the aloneness of human beings and their chasing after glimmers---books, money, security, love---to bring happiness to their lives. The book turns on the paradoxes of the ones who draw the glimmers into something more substantial and the ones who do not. Might it be better not to chase after glimmers at all?

M. Feldman