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The Cannibal Galaxy
This novel is about the uneasy condition of Jewish heritage in the prevailing Gentile culture of middle America.
Because he was permitted to survive World War II, French Jew, Joseph Brill has dedicated his life to the exhortation of his childhood rabbi--to teach. As principal of a school in the American midwest, he teaches his version of enlightenment hoping to make a difference. But all he sees around him is debilitating mediocrity until the brilliant Hester Lilt enrolls her daughter in his school.
Because he was permitted to survive World War II, French Jew, Joseph Brill has dedicated his life to the exhortation of his childhood rabbi--to teach. As principal of a school in the American midwest, he teaches his version of enlightenment hoping to make a difference. But all he sees around him is debilitating mediocrity until the brilliant Hester Lilt enrolls her daughter in his school.
161 pages, Hardcover
First published August 12, 1983
8 people are currently reading
503 people want to read
About the author
Cynthia Ozick
108 books427 followersRecipient of the first Rea Award for the Short Story (in 1976; other winners Rea honorees include Lorrie Moore, John Updike, Alice Munro), an American Academy of Arts and Letters Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award, and the PEN/Malamud award in 2008.
Upon publication of her 1983 The Shawl, Edmund White wrote in the New York Times, "Miss Ozick strikes me as the best American writer to have emerged in recent years...Judaism has given to her what Catholicism gave to Flannery O'Connor."
Upon publication of her 1983 The Shawl, Edmund White wrote in the New York Times, "Miss Ozick strikes me as the best American writer to have emerged in recent years...Judaism has given to her what Catholicism gave to Flannery O'Connor."
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 29, 2015
When my sophomore English class read "A Separate Peace," our teacher explained that the author John Knowles wrote the book as a sort of lab experiment, creating a novel that could teach students how to identify and analyze tricky figurative concepts like symbol and theme (apologies to Knowles, this may or may not be true). Maybe he only told us this so we'd stop questioning everything he was trying to teach us, but the idea of easy "right" answers tucked throughout the book made me hate it; I thought it made the whole thing condescending and boring.
I remembered that when I read The Cannibal Galaxy, because for a while the story felt less wild and imaginative than what I'm used to from Ozick. I was also bothered by several instances--again, very out of character for her--when allusions, puns, and historical references are explained for the reader. It seemed a little lazy and pointless, even dull.
But Cynthia, I think I figured you out! The Cannibal Galaxy is a criticism of the 'hoax of pedagogy', i.e. education that values lists of facts and superficial analysis over the development of any deeper parts of ourselves. So here's my theory: Ozick wants, during the novel's schoolroom sections, to rub our nose in how pointless and uninspired art is when it's all about finding the correct answers (it's notable that the novel's central symbol, The Cannibal Galaxy, is one of the few whose purpose is never fully spelled out).
Granted, that is not a very original message, at least not now; maybe it was moreso when the book was published in 1983. And ironically, given Ozick's snobbishness, it's also common: who doesn't think they're a misunderstood genius who was ground down by teachers with the wrong values (maybe her point is that we all are, but I doubt it)? But on that point, it is worth remarking that the novel is, sort of, unusually democratic for her--casting her cultural conservatism in opposition to empty-headed lust for pedigree, and subtly challenging Europe's right to regard itself as the seat of the world's culture and civilization.
The Cannibal Galaxy visits a lot of themes, characters, and styles that Ozick has handled better elsewhere, but a merely good Ozick novel is still a great read (especially when I haven't had a lot of time for pleasure reading in the last several months). This would not be a good introduction to her fiction, but die-hard fans will enjoy it just fine.
I remembered that when I read The Cannibal Galaxy, because for a while the story felt less wild and imaginative than what I'm used to from Ozick. I was also bothered by several instances--again, very out of character for her--when allusions, puns, and historical references are explained for the reader. It seemed a little lazy and pointless, even dull.
But Cynthia, I think I figured you out! The Cannibal Galaxy is a criticism of the 'hoax of pedagogy', i.e. education that values lists of facts and superficial analysis over the development of any deeper parts of ourselves. So here's my theory: Ozick wants, during the novel's schoolroom sections, to rub our nose in how pointless and uninspired art is when it's all about finding the correct answers (it's notable that the novel's central symbol, The Cannibal Galaxy, is one of the few whose purpose is never fully spelled out).
Granted, that is not a very original message, at least not now; maybe it was moreso when the book was published in 1983. And ironically, given Ozick's snobbishness, it's also common: who doesn't think they're a misunderstood genius who was ground down by teachers with the wrong values (maybe her point is that we all are, but I doubt it)? But on that point, it is worth remarking that the novel is, sort of, unusually democratic for her--casting her cultural conservatism in opposition to empty-headed lust for pedigree, and subtly challenging Europe's right to regard itself as the seat of the world's culture and civilization.
The Cannibal Galaxy visits a lot of themes, characters, and styles that Ozick has handled better elsewhere, but a merely good Ozick novel is still a great read (especially when I haven't had a lot of time for pleasure reading in the last several months). This would not be a good introduction to her fiction, but die-hard fans will enjoy it just fine.
December 7, 2017
El tema de fondo de las diferencias culturales entre Estados Unidos y Europa está muy bien personificado por el director Brill y la filósofa frente a las madres y alumnos norteamericanos. Aunque los dos personajes europeos estén aparentemente asimilados por su larga estancia en ese continente de acogida, en el caso del director esa existencia mediocre acaba por hacerlo “estallar” y salirse de sus propias previsiones. Pero la soledad de los dos contrasta con las normas sociales de los demás, los aísla sin que sean capaces de encontrarse el uno al oro.
Demasiada divagación en la historia del director, y demasiado misterio en la de la filósofa para que podamos sacar algo en claro de toda la “narración”, y aunque tiene puntos interesantes (evolución de las teorías pedagógicas,, el determinismo darwiniano aplicado desde los alumnos más jóvenes, el sentimiento de culpabilidad de los supervivientes del holocausto nazi...), no llega a rematar prácticamente ninguna de las historias principales. Acabas con la sensación de que te faltan datos que definan claramente la mayoría de los caracteres. Un final poco convincente.
Demasiada divagación en la historia del director, y demasiado misterio en la de la filósofa para que podamos sacar algo en claro de toda la “narración”, y aunque tiene puntos interesantes (evolución de las teorías pedagógicas,, el determinismo darwiniano aplicado desde los alumnos más jóvenes, el sentimiento de culpabilidad de los supervivientes del holocausto nazi...), no llega a rematar prácticamente ninguna de las historias principales. Acabas con la sensación de que te faltan datos que definan claramente la mayoría de los caracteres. Un final poco convincente.
January 17, 2011
Truly brilliant. Not a perfect novel -- at times it feels more like a kind of botched and comic eaves-dropping, a not-fully-accomplished exploration of the lives of two characters and their intersections. This is not a novel about education, not a philosophy of what happens when secular and religious education come together. This is a terribly important and beautiful song to the battered, emerging soul. How does a soul exist after a prolonged trauma that leaves a certain kind of long, emotional scar, and after which, to be alive can be only either sacred or mundane? This book asks just such a question and does so with just the right arch and trembling touch. I didn't leave this novel feeling I had read a masterpiece, I left it with the whole of it still in me and a good, deep puzzlement that I turn and turn to.
March 16, 2016
As a former teacher, I can't quite get on board with Ozick's cruel satire about mediocre teachers who inculcate mediocrity in their students. This is. It even the main theme in the novel so it seems a bit gratuitous. Most teachers are NOT like this. The novel is apparently about the Dual Curriculum, the attempt to live in the secular world while still retaining one's ethnic (in this case Jewish) identity. This important concern gets lost in the satire about egregious teaching practices (i.e. teachers giving grades without reading students' work). The relationship between the main character, Brill, and Hester Lilt provides the important drama. Although accused of being a deficient mother, she is utterly devoted to her daughter Beulah. After all, her victory signals Brill's defeat, and the defeat of mediocrity. With this development perhaps the dual curriculum could be resuscitated.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2021
This book didn't impress me much and I had found it to be kind of dull really. I had started this with absolutely no idea what it was about, as it was for a totally random book challenge and this is the one that was picked. I think it's trying to be literally maybe but I just found it very boring... although I did read the entire thing. The characters just didn't really interest me at all or and nothing much ever actually happened. I could see a theme in the book, something along the lines of that you can't predict how people are going to turn out based on how they are as kids, as sometimes people can surprise you. A successful child might turn out to be a nobody while the nobody kid might end up famous.
This story is about a man who's a principal at a elementary school in the US. He grew up in Paris and had lived through the horrors of WW2, which had greatly influenced his life. Most of the book is about him being a principal and watching the kids, trying to see the parents in the child. This works well for him until he meets an unusual little girl who refused to talk or say anything...but she has a famous mother who is a philosophizer - and he just can't understand this.
He meets the unusual girl around page 50 and I had hoped that the story might actually start then and develop into something more interesting, alas, that never happened. It just continued to plod along at a slow pace.
The only good thing about this book is that it's short.
This story is about a man who's a principal at a elementary school in the US. He grew up in Paris and had lived through the horrors of WW2, which had greatly influenced his life. Most of the book is about him being a principal and watching the kids, trying to see the parents in the child. This works well for him until he meets an unusual little girl who refused to talk or say anything...but she has a famous mother who is a philosophizer - and he just can't understand this.
He meets the unusual girl around page 50 and I had hoped that the story might actually start then and develop into something more interesting, alas, that never happened. It just continued to plod along at a slow pace.
The only good thing about this book is that it's short.
June 2, 2020
"La vida de Joseph Brill es un milagro. Superviviente del Holocausto, acaba fundando una escuela primaria en el Medio Oeste de Estados Unidos con un sistema educativo creado para triunfar. Su obsesión por la inteligencia es el hilo conductor de esta obra brillante de Ozick. Pero Brill acabará rozando el absurdo escudado en su mente dicotómica: la cima o la nada. Preso de un sentimiento de inferioridad latente, buscará la supremacía del ser en sus alumnos. Solo encontrará mediocridad. Y frente a la mediocridad perforante, narcisismo puro. Sus ansias de superdotación, de poseer o descubrir una mente privilegiada le llevarán a una confusión de conceptos que frustrarán sus ambiciones y elevarán sus delirios de grandeza. Buscará la genialidad creadora donde solo hay brillantez ejecutora. Confundirá alta eficacia con altas capacidades. Falta de motivación con vacuidad personal. Originalidad con rareza. Introversión con lenta nulidad. Pero, ¿qué es la inteligencia? Y, ¿es el sistema educativo occidental válido para potenciar a las mentes más privilegiadas? ¿No es sino el reflejo de una profunda arrogancia pretender mesurarla y juzgarla desde una sola perspectiva? Citando a Brill: Ad Astra!" Claudia Muñoz
August 22, 2016
I picked this book up off my parent's bookshelf because it was appealingly slim, had a good title and a famous author. I didn't really know what to expect, but I knew that Ozick was a New Yorker, very Jewish in her writing, and had a brutal and funny own of Norman Mailer's sexism that had circulated the Internet. I was picturing something like E.L. Doctorow - high-quality New York immigrant life.
But this book is as small and hard and cold and cutting as a diamond. It's deeply intellectual, taking place far more in the register of ideas than of plot. It's heavy and dark, to the extent that its Holocaust section is arguably lighter in tone than the parts set uneventfully in a Midwestern school. This is the kind of book that you would have to - and could - read through two more times to even begin to pick apart, but Ozick is talented enough to move the reader through the book without slowing.
But this book is as small and hard and cold and cutting as a diamond. It's deeply intellectual, taking place far more in the register of ideas than of plot. It's heavy and dark, to the extent that its Holocaust section is arguably lighter in tone than the parts set uneventfully in a Midwestern school. This is the kind of book that you would have to - and could - read through two more times to even begin to pick apart, but Ozick is talented enough to move the reader through the book without slowing.
May 20, 2019
Joseph Brill grew up in France and wanted to be an astronomer, but the holocaust put an end to his hopes. He survived and, following his rabbi's advice, became a school principal in the Midwestern U.S. He was a mediocre principal supervising mediocre teachers, a man who believed how you start determines how you end up. However, his life proved otherwise: those who start out strong do not always end up on top; a happy marriage may not end happily, etc. Interesting book but not an exciting read.
January 1, 2014
This didn't hit me the way The Shawl did, but it is beautifully written.
August 20, 2025
even though it's definitely a part of the point, I couldn't stand the main character's inner monologue and how overly intellectual he was & dramatic he was about his own and others' intellectual-isms. i've had a busy past few months, but even then no other excuse to take so long with a 160-odd page book other than that i did not vibe with this.
March 31, 2019
Increíble historia, otro gran libro de Cynthia con una gran reflexión, basada en la educación. Hay un contraste fuerte entre los dos personajes protagonistas y una tensión por saber quién en el futuro tiene la razón
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 26, 2019
The way the author writes is pure magic. The story was ok but I’ll be seeking out much more from Cynthia Ozick
October 1, 2021
A novel that, to me, seems to be about the inherent danger of turning other human beings into symbols, putting them on a pedestal for your own worship. Joseph Brill, the protagonist of the story, seems to shift these feelings of almost religious devotion from one person to another throughout the narrative, whether it's Rabbi Pult, Edmund Flegg, or Hester Lilt. His love of intellectualism and inherent snobbishness combine to prevent him, for almost the entire novel, from feeling any self-confidence or the ability to engage in even the smallest pleasures of everyday life. In part, it's a cautionary tale, but one that never feels preachy: wonderfully satirical and dazzlingly written.
July 3, 2012
“But Europe’s old puddle lapped at the isles of Greece, and at Italy’s wrinkly boot-snout, and at Jaffa, that regretful port-town Jonah’s ship left behind, and, especially, at the hot mellow underskirt of France, the carnival city of Nice” (17).
“They brought him a radio; he could listen, if he liked, to the war. There was only one electrical outlet: it was either the lamp or the radio. In the blackness he heard the ranting against the Jews and preferred the lamp…” (26).
“This was a marvel, that two souls, two such separated tonalities, so to speak, could between them describe the true map of life” (28).
“Safe on the tongue of a liar” (31).
"He had expected the usual female hand--its frivolous letters, the curves of the base strokes like perfume reduced to hieroglyph..." (50-51).
"...she was stripping him; no one said his name without the plosive preface of his title!" (51).
"Berthe was in luck, he had a small shoe factory just outside of Paris--the slipper fit at last!" (59).
“They brought him a radio; he could listen, if he liked, to the war. There was only one electrical outlet: it was either the lamp or the radio. In the blackness he heard the ranting against the Jews and preferred the lamp…” (26).
“This was a marvel, that two souls, two such separated tonalities, so to speak, could between them describe the true map of life” (28).
“Safe on the tongue of a liar” (31).
"He had expected the usual female hand--its frivolous letters, the curves of the base strokes like perfume reduced to hieroglyph..." (50-51).
"...she was stripping him; no one said his name without the plosive preface of his title!" (51).
"Berthe was in luck, he had a small shoe factory just outside of Paris--the slipper fit at last!" (59).
August 18, 2014
I think the thing I most like about Ozick is that she writes in a way that seems erudite but not in a way that makes me feel stupid. Although I suspect there's more structured meaning and a great deal more nuance in a book like this than I'm equipped to discover, I find that I feel reasonably smart when reading it, which is a nice feeling. She also writes stories that I could never have imagined anybody would have conceived of writing, which is not to say that they're necessarily fantastical (well, Puttermesser was a bit fantastical) but more that they're remarkable in how they tease the extraordinary out of the ordinary. Her prose clicks pretty well with me (I wouldn't often call it beautiful or high on style, but there's an elegance and a precision about it that I admire), though she's maybe overfond in this book of the colon.
October 1, 2016
When I was 10 and this book came out, it made a big splash in my community since the school and principal were based on our local school and this specific principal. I was much too young to read or understand the book then and I found it this week in my local library (in Israel) so I thought it was time.
Sadly, I did not enjoy the biting tone of the book or her heavy handed writing style but I'm glad I finally read it nonetheless, at least I know what all the fuss was about back then.
Sadly, I did not enjoy the biting tone of the book or her heavy handed writing style but I'm glad I finally read it nonetheless, at least I know what all the fuss was about back then.
June 10, 2012
This is a really interesting story about a principal of a Jewish Day School in "middle" America. He's had a Very unique upbringing, and his philosophy on life is simply fascinating.
October 9, 2015
for me there is just something engaging about reading about schools and teachers - even when they are not overwhelmingly successful because what is success anyway?
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September 24, 2017Joseph Brill strives for educational brilliance, and fails in all respects, even personally. In part, I think, because he clings to a prediction that he will be a great educator. He does succeeds in developing an innovative curriculum, but fails to have any star students. He blames them, not himself. He's a whiner. In the end, I don't like him. He abandons a potentially great match and marries an ordinary women who is his intellectual inferior -- thus not threatening. He is a coward.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews