"Foreign Bodies"

I have considered reading, and even begun reading, novels by Cynthia Ozick before, and have never been able to get into them, let alone finish them (although I have read some of her short stories, and have taught her powerful short story, “The Shawl”). (This is not a criticism of Ozick, who is widely esteemed as a great writer; I simply did not connect with her style and/or subject matter.) But when I heard that her latest novel was a loose retelling of Henry James’ novel “The Ambassadors,” and read good reviews, I decided to read it, finished it, and am glad I did. Set in the early 1950s, “Foreign Bodies” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010) tells the story of middle-aged New York high school teacher Beatrice (Bea) Nightingale’s going to Paris and, at her obnoxious, ambitious, successful and semi-estranged Los Angeles-based brother Marvin’s request, checking on Marvin’s indecisive son Julian and trying to bring him back. She reluctantly complies, but is unsuccessful; Julian never wants to be controlled by his father again. However, Bea does become involved with, and even interferes in, the lives of Julian, his sister Iris, and his lover Lili (a Romanian “displaced person” who suffers nightmares from the terrible things that happened to her and her family members during the war), as well as with Marvin’s patrician but (probably) mentally ill wife, Margaret. The novel is also infused with Bea’s memories of her early brief marriage to Leo, then an impoverished musician and now a successful Hollywood composer who feels he has sold out; they reconnect in an intriguing, indirect way. Bea is an original, somewhat mysterious character. In some ways she is very ordinary, and has led a very ordinary life, but during the events of this story, she finds herself capable of manipulation and of making decisions that might greatly affect others’ lives. It is hard to tease out how much of this interference is well-meant and how much has a touch of malice toward her overbearing brother, and/or a slight intoxication with a newfound -- albeit unsought -- power to make a difference in others’ lives. As with most or perhaps all of Ozick’s work, a theme underlying much of the novel is the powerful influence of Judaism, and of anti-Semitism, on the characters’ lives.