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givable in some circles, and considerable energy is invested by Serge's
present-day promoters to show that "totalitarian" meant something dif–
ferent then. But there is no escape from the fact that Serge was an ardent
cold warrior even before the cold war had really come under way.
Seen in retrospect it could not have been different. He had lived more
than fifteen years in the Soviet Union; he had witnessed Communist ide–
ology and Communist reality from a close ang le. In contrast to some of
his comrades in the West he could not possibly consider Stalinism a
mere aberration. For him the Soviet Union and Communism was the
most important issue in world politics and, after the destruction of fas–
cism, also the greatest threat. The debates about whether the Soviet
regime was bureaucratic collectivist or state monopoly capitalist or
other such hair splitting must have appeared to him either ridiculous or
incomprehensible.
And yet, with all this, one owes a debt of gratitude to those who, for
whatever motives, are resurrecting the work of Victor Serge. His articles
and books speak for themselves, and we wou ld be poorer without them.
Walter Laqueur
Intimacies and Mysteries
CONFESSIONS OF A SECULAR JEW: A MEMOIR . By Eugene Goodheart.
Overlook Press.
$27.95.
How DOES ONE RECOUNT A
LIFE
that is not heroic enough to have put
the author on a postage stamp or atop an equestrian statue? How can a
memoirist do justice to a life that is drenched in reading, writing, teach–
ing, and talking? The answer is: by bringing the pressure of thoughtful–
ness to bear upon the people and incidents that have marked one's life.
What gives it even a rough approximation of meaning is the self–
consciousness that can be invested in the recollection of the past, and
what gives that life any claim of interest to readers is the distinctive
voice-the immediacy of persona lity-that can be cultivated in giving
shape to autobiography.
The name Eugene Goodheart appears on no pieces of legis lation, nor
has he discovered any subatomic particles. A scholar of modern litera–
ture (primarily British), a commentator on contemporary culture (espe–
cially academic), and a frequent contributor to
Partisan Reuiew,
