Quarrel & Quandary showcases the manifold talents of one of our
leading and award-winning critics and essayists.
In nineteen opulent essays, Cynthia Ozick probes Dostoevsky for insights
into the Unabomber, questions the role of the public intellectual, and
dares to wonder what poetry is. She roams effortlessly from Kafka to
James, Styron to Stein, and, in the book's most famous essay, dissects
the gaudy commercialism that has reduced Anne Frank to "usable goods."
Courageous, audacious, and sublime, these essays have the courage of
conviction, the probing of genius, and the durable audacity to matter.