Two of these (here, abridged) letters were published in yesterday’s NYT Magazine in response to Deborah Solomon’s Feb. 27 interview with Jonathan Safran Foer. One of these letters, however, wasn’t published, and never will be (except here). Can you guess which?
a) Jonathan Safran Foer’s unique insight brought to mind the paintings of Marc Chagall. His writing combines personal memories with a strong imagination. Especially remarkable was his reverence for the blank piece of typing paper that once belonged to Isaac Bashevis Singer Singer, which he offered as a gift to a fellow writer.
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Bartonsville, Pa.b) While the self-absorption of America’s youth continues to bewilder me, Jonathan Safran Foer’s mention of Martin Luther King Jr. was a graceful acknowledgedment of Black History Month. Deborah Solomon should also be commended for her ability to relay Foer’s inexhaustible capacity for insight.
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Franklin Park, N.J.c) Jonathan, Joanthan, your Everything Is Illuminated pierced my heart and opened a floodgate of passion for the lost world of the shtetl. I have since immersed myself in literature on the subject, including upward of 15 books by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Your dismissive remark that Singer’s “morality is so 19th century’ is a dagger in my heart.
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New York
While I have my suspicions that both a) and c) were crafted by post-post-ironic hipsters who found JSF’s self-absorption familiar, grotesque, and threatening, b) is, as far as I know, the only “really” “fake” letter among the three.