The Mail
Foer Whom The Bell Tolls
Mark Melnick, Manhattan
Wonderful piece on the cute little author with three names. I read about a chapter and a half of Everything Is Illuminated, then put it down, deciding that my time would be better spent stabbing the author in the head. It's funny how a guy whose rightful name should be Skippy can rip off everyone else's game, then be hailed as the Next Big Thing. I raise a shot to you for smacking him upside the head.
Pete Kotz, Cleveland
I honestly don't know how you could publish Harry Siegel's ignorant commentary on Jonathan Safran Foer's new novel. Could the reviewer perhaps be driven by jealousy of one who is eloquent and possesses the power to deeply move his reader?
Leemore Malka, Manhattan
Mr. Siegel: Oskar (Matzerath) is the precocious, independent child narrator of Gunter Grass' brilliant Tin Drum, one of the most imaginative characters in 20th-century literature. Oskar's self-taught, frighteningly intelligent child voice tells a complex family history and witnesses the very uncertain time following the massive destruction of wartime Germany. A very obvious reference that you clearly missed ("Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False," 4/13). Yes, Foer is a sampler, but he's better read than you.
Karen Heimann, Brooklyn
Thank you so much for running this article. Foer finally gets an honest review that isn't blinded by the themes he chooses to cower behind in order to cash in. Seriously, you guys just made my day.
Paula Pou, Manhattan
What a great review. It's been a while since someone had the guts to tell us the emperor has no clothes. The critique of the publishing industry at the end of the article was also spot-on. I'll be making sure friends read this.
Matthew C. Amundsen, Brooklyn
Down Under
Re: The C.H.U.D offensive ("Expect Delays, and Far, Far Worse," 3/30): While strolling through the East Village on a recent, pleasant spring afternoon, a thought occurred to me as I passed over a manhole: New York Press has managed to overlook one of the more subtle and devious offensives of the wicked C.H.U.D.s. Can we be expected to blame poor old Con-Ed for the recent spate of manhole electrocutions? Obviously, one of the more intelligent C.H.U.D.s (maybe Bud) has mastered the electrical arts, and the result has been the frying of the unfortunate passing dog and passerby. Open your eyes, people!
Robert Frankel, Brooklyn
He'll Be Back
It's a shame that you have removed the horoscopes. I always found it amusing and a good reason to browse your site.
Bill Piccolo, Amsterdam
That's Amore
Re: Joshua M. Bernstein's review of Capone's (2/2): This article was funny and well done. Kinda like a Capone's pizza.
Kathleen Cholewka, Manhattan
Into the Sandstorm
The editorial, "Sandstorm in Morningside Heights" (4/13), is, to put it kindly, misleading.
Yes, the Middle East is overwhelmingly Arab and Muslim. Yes, the Middle East is big and Israel very small. Many of the Columbia students who have taken courses on the Middle East in recent years have done so precisely because they wanted to know more about the 20-plus nations of the Islamic world. Instead, they got Israel-bashing.
It is not true that the worst of the claims have "been discredited by an official university inquiry." Come to think of it, how does the editorialist define the worst of the claims? The "official university inquiry" was conducted by a committee of five faculty members of whom four had close personal ties to professors about whom the claims were made, and the fifth had previously dismissed the charges that were the occasion for the inquiry. The students had been trying to get their grievances heard for more than a year before one of them had the idea of making a filmed record of the grievances, and the David Project provided technical and financial assistance to the filmmakers.
It is not the students who seek to silence debate. Every grievance described in the Ad Hoc Committee's report involves a student being silenced by a professor after attempting to question a slanderous statement about Israel. The one incident that even the Ad Hoc Grievance Committee, riddled with conflict of interest as it was, found to "exceed commonly accepted bounds" of academic conduct involved a student being invited to leave class because she questioned his false account of "Israeli atrocities." Does the editorialist really think that professors have a right to silence questioners, and that the students should have known that Columbia professors would do so?
Judith S. Jacobson, DrPH, MBA, Vice-president,
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
Thank you for having the balls to be one of the few publications to recognize the Columbia controversy for what it is: a right-wing attempt to squelch free (and truthful) speech on campus ("Sandstorm in Morningside Heights," 4/13). Despite the ramblings of too many hypocritical observers, it is possible to believe in justice for the Palestinian people and not be an anti-Semite.
Jim Reed, Brooklyn
Tony's Good People
Last word on "50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers" (3/31): First of all, good article. Glad to see you didn't lose your edge with all of the editorial changes and Pope-worshipping censors. Now to my point: Tony Danza.
Danza is a clown, yes, but he's not loathsome. Considering how many Italians love Mr. Danza (just look at his picture on the wall of every other pizza parlor in Brooklyn), why bother with him when there are bigger fish to fry? I would have rather seen the entire Gotti clan included.
NAME WITHHELD, Manhattan
Hynes and Misdemeanors
Thank you so much for your article exposing Mr. Hynes ("O'Hara vs. Hynes," Christopher Ketcham, 4/6). I've had to deal with one of Hynes' associates, Dennis Quirk, for years. He's the kingpin who runs the New York State Court Officers Association with an iron fist, and long ago he had himself voted in for "life." Mr. Quirk runs Mr. Hynes' campaigns and has been his treasurer since 1989.
Well, that's politics. He now also owns many "concession" stands on Manhattan Beach. And he owns skating rinks in Staten Island, Flushing and Coney Island. It's nice to have friends like Mr. Hynes.
NAME WITHHELD, Manhattan
The Betty White Project
Re: "Sandstorm in Morningside Heights" (The News Hole, 4/13): Your bellyaching about the role of David Project in supporting student protests against anti-Israel bias defies common sense and fairness. Where is it written that students protesting prevailing biases at a major university must swear off any help from outside organizations? Should human rights activists tell Amnesty International to take a hike? Should animal rights activists get rid of PETA? Should students with free-speech qualms forsake the ACLU? Does a university that takes money from dictatorial oil sheikhdoms to fund professors' chairs (such as Rashid Khalidi's Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies) really have any business telling students to keep outsiders out of the university?
Michael Brenner, Woodmere, NY
Hear Hear, Harry
I enjoyed your review of Foer's book ("Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False," Harry Siegel, 4/13). I have not read it, but your review confirmed my suspicions. Too many people have lauded Foer and this book, extolling his "remarkable talents." The hype had me interested, but then I saw Foer in a Brooks Brothers ad: "Jonathan S. Foer: Blazer by Brooks Brothers, $325; Long Sleeve Shirt in Pima Cotton, $85." I remember when authors were apart from the system, not a cog in the crushing wheel.
NAME WITHHELD, Manhattan
Outrageous
Sometimes outrage forces us to act. That is how I imagine Harry Siegel felt after reading his review of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ("Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False," 4/13). He admits that he initially decided against reviewing the book because he had nothing positive to say about the writer or the work. While I am sure there are plenty of meek, timid souls who would disagree, I for one am glad he changed his mind.
Without Siegel's review, the book would still be just as awful, but by choosing to critique the work he demonstrates to the book's author what quality writing is about-truth. Seigel uses this truth to lay out with brutal clarity the self-centered, thinly veiled career piece styling itself as quality fiction this book was attempting to be. By writing this blistering review, Siegel will not change the fact that some pretentious hacks masquerade as quality fiction writers, but I have a feeling he will be able to sleep well knowing he told the emperor to get dressed.
John Lookabaugh, Miami
Playa Hata
Yes, yes, Mr. Siegel, let's say it: You are a hater ("Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False," 4/13). And as with most haters, not an incredibly bright one at that. Your attack on Jonathan Safron Foer's work was not only obnoxious, it was worthy of the a Dale Peck "look at me, look at me" award. That you don't get the historical significance of Dresden, Hiroshima and 9/11 as incredibly violent acts of war is one thing, but you seemingly didn't even read the book itself. Oskar is not left to wander the streets at night alone: In fact, his mother has been having him followed and been one step ahead of him the entire way of his journey, a major fact revealed at the end of the book which is actually one of its more poignant revelations.
Your attack of Foer is comparable to the publishing world that you astutely admonish, and then methodically replicate by asserting the same standards and pressure upon Foer that you claim to despise. Are there "flaws" in this story, or POV that show the age of the author? Absolutely. The example of the semi-incestuous sisters might be a valid one. But this is really good storytelling, and, yes, Harry, art. It is not an easy read-yes Harry, you actually have to think about what you are reading. And do all of the devices that Mr. Foer employs work every time? No, but at least it was tried, relevant and a really really good work of art. Shame on you for living up to the opening quote from Foer, but it seems that might be what's necessary to get your article published on the front page of a free weekly rag. You really ought to take a good look at your own lack of ambition.
NAME WITHHELD, Brooklyn
And They're Alliterative, Too
I have two words for Harry Siegel's article ("Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False," 4/13): Fucking fantastic!
It's about time someone called out Foer's ridiculously self-important and disgustingly contrived bullshit-prose. You made my day, Harry Siegel, and I love you.
NAME WITHHELD, Manhattan
Calling Eleanor Rigby
I would just like to congratulate you on the brilliant and savage journalism of your Foer review ("Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False," 4/13). He is indeed one of the most talentless and saccharine writers I have ever read. Most reviewers seem content to let him coast off of being young and presumably important. They are fools. His plots are a string of contrivances, the characters utterly meaningless and uninteresting and the diction appallingly "clever." He is the Paul McCartney of literature, predisposed to making art for grandmothers at the ripe age of 27. Thanks for helping expose this fraud.
NAME WITHHELD, Los Angeles
On Velveeta
Your former publisher Russ Smith, now reporting from the sidelines of a Delmarva Little League game, mused upon his social problems in his most recent column: "I felt it was pretty weird that two adults had to reach back to their childhood memories to find anything to talk about without getting into an argument."
Perhaps the problem is not weird at all, but quite simple. Russ Smith's opinions and manner of comporting himself are so removed from the norm that other people are revolted and angered by him. If his personal style is anything like his writing, then I am certain he provokes arguments just by showing up. Hence, only topics such as processed cheese or potato chips can serve as a neutral ground for Mr. Smith, because other people will readily ignore his opinions on these banal matters.
Seth Barron, Manhattan
Returning Soon
Re: "Sign Language": Where are the horoscopes?
Michelle Savarese, Manhattan
We Never Called it the Capitol
I read the editorial "Sandstorm In Morningside Heights" (The News Hole, 4/13) regarding the Jewish students' protests at Columbia. The article starts off, "Call us anti-Semitic, but?"
That should have been the first sign. When the writer called Tel Aviv the capitol of Israel, instead of Jerusalem, that should have been the second sign.
Any other group is encouraged to stand up for themselves. When the Jews do it, we are told to be quiet. That approach was tried 60 years ago. It failed.
Yirmihayu Kass, St. Louis
Consider it Mentioned
When discussing the activities of the David Project at Columbia, I found it interesting that you did not mention Daniel Pipes' notorious Campus Watch group as well.
Samana Siddiqui, Manhattan
TELL 'EM LARGE MARGE SENT YA!
Re: "The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope" (3/2): Matt, there just wasn't anything there that was the least bit funny. Whatever possessed you to create this stuff? And print it! It was boring. Try something else.
Margaret "Marge" Garrehy, Queens
But Is It Gay?
Russ Smith: It is gay for two men to go to a movie together after the age of 25 ("Basebrawl," 4/13). It has always been gay for two men to go to a restaurant like the Brass Elephant, unless they were discussing business or sitting at the bar watching a sporting event. Even then, you should have at least a third male along or a woman.
As for the near brawl incident, I think that is just one indication that we may be sliding perilously close to civil war. This is the fault of that mendacious phallus we have for president, whom you, an otherwise apparently intelligent conservative, continue to defend. (Full disclosure: I am a blue-state liberal and support homosexuals' right to get married, despite some level of homophobia.)
Andrew L. Spence, Suffern, NY