Jonathan Mirsky
Sales of the Century
Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller
By Ira B Nadel
University of Texas Press 352pp £18.99 order from our bookshop
Instantly famous in 1958 after the publication of his novel Exodus, and for years afterwards one of the bestselling celebrity authors in print, Leon Uris was in person awful. He was egomaniacal but insecure, bullying, misogynistic, an unfaithful husband, an inconstant (at best) father, venomously envious of many other writers, a celebrant of violence practised by those he admired – Jews, Marines and the IRA – and a relentless hater of Arabs and any individual, especially his wives and children, who defied his unbending will.
Ira B Nadel, a professor of English at the University of British Columbia and a biographer, notably of the singer Leonard Cohen, is a hunter-down of inconsequential facts about Uris, such as what hotels he stayed in and the calibre of the pistol with which one of his
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'What they created in the neighbourhood resembled more a distillation of the High German culture of their past than a fresh start.'
@GeorgeProchnik tells the story of the German–Jewish intellectuals who settled in Jerusalem in the early 20th century.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/vienna-by-temple-mount
'Good translation is ... a refined art. It requires not just excellent language skills, but experience, emotional intelligence and enterprise as well.'
@Bridget_Kendall on how interpreters navigate the 'perilous waters of diplomacy'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/to-put-it-diplomatically
'Being an ambitious female artist working in the avant-garde was far from easy. Her art ... was found variously to be feminine, cold and artisanal'.
@TanyaHarrod on @EleanorClaytone's 'finely written study' of Barbara Hepworth.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/she-carved-her-own-way