Mark Dintenfass Forum

Mark Dintenfass

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A woefully under-known author

>>By Admirer (Wednesday, 14 May 2003 21:48)

"Old World, New World" is a beautiful book. Mark Dintenfass' skills as a wordsmith and his ability to make his characters' subjective experience tangible has always been his greatest strength. At the most obvious levels "Old World, New World" carries many of the themes the Barry Levinson film "Avalon," but the novel format allows deeper exploration of themes than is available to film.

The book reads as a liberal's defense of conservativism. Tradition is the "tower" in the darkness -- it may be restrictive and arbitrary, but it maintains order in a dangerous world. Tradition can be enervating. The doubt and deference instilled in Sam, the second-generation patriarch -- his inability to leave his self-imposed cocoon -- cost him his business. On the other hand, Sam's brother Walter taught his daughter Jeannie to throw off the traditions of a family that he came appreciate too late. And in cutting her off from that order she lost her fears of the "wilderness," and she was devoured by it.

>>By What_d_I_Say (Saturday, 23 Oct 2004 00:00)

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