Terry

Robinson delivers a humanist attack on the cultural-intellectual nexus of Darwin and Freud and seeks to rehabilitate that of Puritanism and John Calvin. With brilliant style and a withering sardonic wit, Robinson argues that the values of democracy, social justice, and human community were expanded under the latter and eclipsed under the former. Particularly surprising to me was her refusal to buy into the common argument that Darwin was innocent of Social Darwinism. Obviously there is a lot more to the discussion than this 1998 work, but to my mind Robinson has given Darwin in particular (she mostly just shreds Freud) a relentless run around the court. - Terry

A Father leaving his young family for another man isn't so promising a premise. Leaving for the greatest rabbinical mind of his generation better captures both the intellectual fervor & doomed essence of this relationship. Top it off with a reunion dinner in Tel Aviv with his now-grown sons that comes off like truth itself and you have a concise and elegant gem of a novel. - Terry