Why Trilling Matters by Adam Kirsch National Jewish Book Award Winner Hope: A Tragedy is a

Hope: A Tragedy is a hilarious and haunting examination of the burdens and abuse of history

Employing a partly chronological

and Yiddish plays in particular

complex ambiguities that inhabit the heart

this remarkable book teases the senses as it offers sustenance for the soul

Why Trilling Matters by Adam Kirsch National Jewish Book Award Winner Hope: A Tragedy is aLionel Trilling, regarded at the time of his death in 1975 as Americas preeminent literary critic, is today often seen as a relic of a vanished era. His was an age when literary criticism and ideas seemed to matter profoundly in the intellectual life of the country. In this eloquent book, Adam Kirsch shows that Trilling, far from being obsolete, is essential to understanding our current crisis of literary confidenceand to overcoming it. By reading