Category: Commentary

  • Fragment from a Story that is not Working Out

    I raise my hand in cheder and ask the teacher: “Why are jews good at running?” “Because we are excellent prey and what good is prey if it does not give the hunter a good chase for his money?” “Rabbi, people tell me I am a good student. Why have…

  • “Mourning Without Empathy Leads To Madness.” — Winicott

    I have been away working on a new book of short stories dealing with the Holocaust. In part because it demands much more of me as a person and writer. I have to dig deeper into myself and I like digging into myself. It is not painful — it is,…

  • On Gruffworld — and the Floater

    I have just completed a light edit of the book in manuscript. It is at least 25 years old. It may never see the light of day, all 325 pages or so. it doesn’t work. It doesn’t fly. At the time I tried to bring together my learnings about psychoanalysis…

  • On La Dolce Vita and the Floater in My Eye

    It was 1960 and I saw La Dolce Vita for the first time; it was the only movie in my experience in which patrons got up and left their rows. The movie was complex to my mind. I didn’t get it, nor did I understand that Fellini was educating us…