BOOKS 157
mawkishness, self pity, guilt, or illusion-adhere
to
American liberalism
in its more recent manifestations. A
Life in the Twentieth Century
is suf–
fused with nostalgia for the thirties and especially for its popular cu l–
ture, its songs and cinema, which have been deteriorating ever since,
though Schl esinger stretches the theme of decline to the point of self–
parody at times, melodramatically lamenting the replacement of the pre–
dinner cocktai l with white wine. One needs more detail
to
know what
exactly Schlesinger means by "the nation's dreary destiny," but the drea–
riness is palpable in this balanced, humorous, and by no means bitter
book.
It
lends an impressionistic melancholy
to
the author's tone.
Schlesinger offers a superb source for understanding the years between
1917
and
1950
as well as a mind that would come to have a command–
ing presence in the postwar period. The second half of the book does not
have the narrative focus that characterizes its first half. Schlesinger
digresses by defending
The Age of Jackson
against its critics. Further–
more, the personal dimension of his childhood memories-the feeling for
family and location-fades as the professional concerns of the mature
man begin
to
dominate, and with this the book loses some of its charm.
A
Life in the Twentieth Century
suffers in comparison with
The Educa–
tion of Henry Adams.
It has less intellectual profundity and more politi–
cal ephemera . But it has the same Olympian irony, not least in its title.
Born in
1917,
hi s beginnings cou ld not have been more ominously timed;
and Schlesinger seems never
to
have been a political innocent.
Michael Kimmage
COMING SOON IN
PARTISAN
REVIEW:
• AI
Sundel
on Isaac Bashevis Singer
• Annie Cohen-Solal
on American artists
• "Lenin's Troubled Legacies" by
Vladimir Tismaneanu
• Reviews by
David Sidorsky, Peter Filkins,
and
Sanford Pinsker
• Fiction by
Olga Grushin
and
Harriet Rohmer
• Poetry by
Mario Luzi
and
Steven Cramer
