Critical thinking #4: Daniel Mendelsohn

An interview with the author, essayist and critic Daniel Mendelsohn

by David Wolf / December 5, 2013 / Leave a comment

Mendelsohn: “I think that any serious author wants one thing: to be read intelligently and generously. What could be the value of praise that’s based on an unintelligent reading?”

This is part of an ongoing series of interviews about the art of criticism. More to follow soon.

Daniel Mendelsohn has been hailed by the New York Times as “our most irresistible literary critic.” His essays, reviews and articles appear in many publications, most frequently in the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and the New York Times Book Review, where he is a columnist. His books include two memoirs, The Elusive Embrace (1999) and The Lost: A Search For Six of Six Million (2006), which will be reissued in the UK in January; a two-volume translation of the works of CP Cavafy; and two collections of essays. He lives in New York Cit…

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Comments

Fraser Gillies
December 5, 2013 at 15:44
Excellent interview. Thanks.
Sapana
December 6, 2013 at 12:33
quiet engaging one..
Kevin Calhoun
December 6, 2013 at 16:48
A very interesting and informative piece. The interview makes me want to read what Mr. Mendelsohn has written. I wonder what he thinks of Renata Adler's takedown of Pauline Kael. I am surprised that this wasn't asked of him in this interview given the context of criticism that was discussed.
Susan Balee
December 6, 2013 at 19:03
Wow. Do I ever agree with DM on a range of topics, especially Theory. I was a grad student at Columbia in the 1980s and remember that era as making lots of people contemptuous of literature, especially grad students (many of whom had been English majors because they loved primary texts, then got seduced by the idea that they --as critics -- could be more important than the writers they'd once revered). That said, it's fun to read good literary essayists and reviewers. I'm a sucker for a good review, a literary genre at which Mr. Mendelsohn excells. Long may he prosper, and long may you, Prospect.
kiwicafe
December 6, 2013 at 22:13
Excellent food for thought.
Esther Grobstein
December 7, 2013 at 01:10
Mr. Mendelsohn is always penetrating, wrestling the angels of art to the ground and emerging triumphant. My goal is to have him at my shabbos table!
aldousk
December 7, 2013 at 08:09
"the rule is that you can’t write anything until you’ve read everything" Let us discuss Keats.
M.G. Piety
December 7, 2013 at 15:49
Very interesting interview. Yes, I'd say a deep engagement with original texts is an absolutely essential part of an undergraduate education. See: http://mgpiety.org/2013/11/26/education-and-philosophy/
Gunjan Srivastava
December 13, 2013 at 02:53
The way you keep yourself aloof from the excitement of immediate events while writing about the modern age is really praiseworthy.