Word: ottensteen
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Author Markfield's quartet of intellectuals revolves around the Little Magazines, to which they rarely contribute but wish they did. There is Felix Ottensteen, burly book reviewer for a Yiddish daily, who refers to himself as der Alte and browbeats his sullen son because he is still a student at 27 ("The way Catherine the Great took lovers, he takes courses"). There is Barnet Weiner, a fading poet-critic who remembers peevishly the time when his picture appeared on the dust jacket of New Critics, 1944. There is Holly Levine, who teaches creative writing but keeps a copy...
Home Trurths. At odyssey's end, the four intellects are, if not wiser, at least candid. They have grown closer than they have ever been, and they may never meet again. Too many home truths have been blurted-the loftily literary Ottensteen, for instance, reveals that he also writes boilerplate for the magazine section of the Yiddish daily under the pen name N. J. Felix. Holly wearily confesses that nothing happens any longer when he writes down the magic words tradition, tragic, committed, alienation. "The word moral looked mean and angry, ailing on the page. And two weeks...
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