Wellfleet Public Library

Eminent Jews: David Denby in conversation with James Carroll

Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer. Brilliant, brash, yet soulful, they were 100 percent Jewish and 100 percent American.

They upended restrained culture of their forebears and changed American life. As prosperity for Jews increased and anti- Semitism began to fade after World War Il, these four creative giants stormed through the latter half of the twentieth century, altering the way people around the world listened to music, detined what was vulgar, comprehended the relations of men and women, and understood the American soul. Celebratory yet candid, at times fiercely critical, David Denby's Eminent Jews presents these four figures as egotistical and generous — larger-than-life, all of them, yet vulnerable, even heartbreaking, in their ambition, ferocity, and pride.

David Denby is the New York Times bestselling author of 1997's Great Books. His other books include 2004's American Sucker and 2016's Lit Up: One Reporter. Three Schools. Twenty-four Books That Can Change Lives. He was a film critic for New York magazine and The New Yorker, where he is now a staff writer. His essays have appeared in The New Republic and The Atlantic.He lives in New York City with his wife, novelist Susan Rieger.

James Carroll served as Catholic chaplain at Boston University from 1969 to 1974. He left the priesthood to become a writer, and for twenty-three years he wrote a weekly op-ed column for The Boston Globe. He has written twelve novels and nine works of nonfiction.