Feline Jazz

Page 19 September–October 2008 Hurezanu continued from previous page and of allegiance to a flag is fundamental in understanding the issue of anti-Semitism, and as far as I know, Rezzori is the only fiction writer who has deconstructed anti-Semitism from this perspective. In “Troth” (i.e., “loyalty”), he almost falls in love with a Jewish woman who introduces him toVienna’s bohemian life, but feels that his affection for her is a betrayal of his flag. Officially, they were born under the same flag, that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but culturally, he is a descendant of “the Holy Roman Empire which had been carried on by Imperial Austria.” Far from “hating” Jews, Rezzori’s protagonist is capable of authentic human relations with them, of friendship and even love; and yet he is, as he himself admits, an anti-Semite, if by “anti-Semitism” one understands the projection onto another person of an Otherness, which the narrator never quite manages to shake off. Even at the end of the book, after having brilliantly deconstructed his own anti-Semitism, the narrator falls again into the refrain of “this is typically Jewish.” This refrain, repeated in various tonalities by him and his relatives, is in other contexts presented with irony and even hilarious sarcasm, as when, having found out that a Jewish neighbor has died of flu though there was no epidemic, and another one has thrown herself out the window after a family dispute, the narrator’s grandmother calls the events “a typical Jewish extravagance.” Mixing retrospective detachment with matter-of-fact description, Rezzori is a master of dark humor when presenting his family’s anti-Semitism: it was not really hate, he says, “no, Jews were simply people of another star—the Star of David and Zion. It might be a shining star, but for us, unfortunately, it shone under the horizon.” Memoirs of an Anti-Semite brilliantly demonstrates that anti-Semitism was not simply “hate,” but a very complex European problem, inseparable from the construction of class, national identity, and the heroic myths of origin linked to the latter. Daniela Hurezanu has two forthcoming translations: with Stephen Kessler, from the French, Eyeseas by Raymond Queneau (Black Widow Press), and with Adam J. Sorkin, from the Romanian, The Factory of the Past by Mariana Marin (Toad Press). feliNe JAzz Barry Wallenstein The BlUe CaT Walks The earTh F. D. Reeve Azul Editions http://www.azuleditions.com 61 pages; paper, $15.00 “The Comeback Cat” Night is a dirty mountain flowers drifting on a windless ocean wild horses stampeding across a road a broken face Over the earth’s head its hot coals burning the sky a blue cat sails out of the sunrise Nowadays, the mere volume of poetry, and good poetry too, makes it difficult to separate the golden wheat from the golden chaff. Nonetheless, it is clear to me that F. D. Reeve, writing and publishing splendid lyric poetry since the early 1950s, offers both light and nourishment within our bright and various poetic firmament. He is the author, editor, or translator of more than two-dozen books, including poetry, fiction, criticism, and translations, mainly from the Russian.As an academic, this former student of the brilliant literary critic R. P. Blackmur, was an important presence at Wesleyan University for fifty years, including a year spent in Moscow and Leningrad as an exchange professor. In 1962, he served as Robert Frost’s interpreter, resulting in the memoir Robert Frost in Russia (1964; 2000). Other books, such as the one he edited in 1991, After the Storm: Poems on the Persian Gulf War, demonstrate his ongoing engagement with social and political issues. The expression of his engagement, as a poet, is as fundamental to his achievement as is his technical virtuosity with the brief lyric and the extended sequence. The Blue Cat series of mostly short poems are divided into separate collections spanning several decades, with subject, theme, and character being carried from one to the next. Looking only at the poetry of these books, The Blue Cat (1972), The Return of the Blue Cat (2005), and the latest installment, The Blue Cat Walks the Earth...