Product Description

As might be expected from this fiercely provocative writer, David Mamet’s interest in anti-Semitism is not limited to the modern face of an ancient hatred but encompasses as well the ways in which many Jews have themselves internalized that hatred. Using the metaphor of the Wicked Son at the Passover seder–the child who asks, “What does this story mean to you?”–Mamet confronts what he sees as an insidious predilection among some Jews to seek truth and meaning anywhere–in other religions, in political movements, in mindless entertainment–but in Judaism itself. At the same time, he explores the ways in which the Jewish tradition has long been and still remains the Wicked Son in the eyes of the world.

Written with the searing honesty and verbal brilliance that is the hallmark of Mamet’s work, The Wicked Son is a scathing look at one of the most destructive and tenacious forces in contemporary life, a powerfully thought-provoking and important book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #457025 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-10
• Released on: 2006-10-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The world hates the Jews. The world always has and will continue to do so." So says celebrated playwright and novelist Mamet in this new entry in the Jewish Encounters series, as he sets his sights on both anti-Semites and apostate Jews, whom he refers to as "the Wicked Sons." Mamet marshals his passion and mastery of language to argue that only religious observance is an authentic, non-self-hating expression of Judaism. Organizing that argument coherently, however, doesn't seem to be a priority, as he moves from discussions of the State of Israel to excoriations of assimilated Jews and contemporary culture and back with no apparent order. The tone is that of the condescending expert: alternately Talmudic scholar, academic, psychoanalyst and anthropologist. But nowhere is Mamet's expertise proven; he provides no source materials to back up his pronouncements on everything from Santa Claus to gun control to religious observance. The implication of this bombastic text seems to be that anyone who disagrees is a coward, an anti-Semite or a self-hating Jew. (Oct.)
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From Booklist
Mamet, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and filmmaker, has written a rather confusing but very provocative analysis of what is often called the "longest hatred" and its effects on Jews. Those unfamiliar with the often-oblique dialogue that characterizes Mamet's fiction will probably find wading through his language frustrating. His repeated allusions to the Bible and other literary sources are strained, and he paints with too broad a brush ("the world hates Jews"). If one can cut through the fog and tolerate his generalizations, it is evident that Mamet is on to something, particularly in his views on the apparent increase in Jewish disdain for and rejection of their own culture. He ties Jewish self-hatred to anti-Semitism, asserting that the victims eventually wonder if they somehow "deserve" the opprobrium heaped on them. So called "emancipated" Jews may try to cleanse themselves of racial taint by disparaging "Jewish" traits. Of course, Mamet finds the worst manifestations of this self-hatred in those Jews who seem to delight in attacking the very existence of Israel. In Mamet's view, they absurdly condemn Jewish passivity during the Holocaust and condemn Jewish aggressiveness in defending the State of Israel. This isn't an easy book to read, and it will likely outrage many Jews and non-Jews, but Mamet's blunt, passionate assertions have to be seriously considered. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A bold and blistering attack on all aspects of this enduring phenomenon, and a probing analysis of its root causes and some of its more insidious manifestations."
–Chicago Sun-Times

“Like everything Mamet does, [The Wicked Son] is blunt and bracing, honest and provocative, original and gutsy.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“Rare among the defenders of the Jews–and of Judaism– Mamet recognizes the romance in the story of his ancient religion and race, and finds the words beautiful enough to describe it.”
–The International Jerusalem Post

“[Mamet’s] clarity, insight, and passion . . . can be both devastatingly witty and scathingly angry.”
–The New York Post

“Incendiary.”
–The Jewish Observer



From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews

A Book For Apostates: That Is, Most Of Us
Those who are familiar with David Mamet only through plays like "Glengarry Glen Ross" and movies like "House of Games" are in for a rough surprise when they read his short, sharp book "The Wicked Son." The style is similar to his plays (without the storm of profanity). You find the same twisting but seductive rhythms, the slashing humor, and the brutal truth-telling. But this is a book explicitly about a single topic: anti-Semitism (although in the process he covers a lot more ground.) And not just the anti-Semitism of the world, but the self-hatred of the cultural, secular Jewish person who is estranged from his or her heritage. There are many, I gather, who will find this book very difficult to read, but if it's taken in the spirit in which it is intended (a sincere offer of help from a brother) I think you will find it fascinating.

I am Mormon rather than Jewish, but I can clearly see how this book applies to any religious tradition to a certain extent (as Mamet himself says when comparing the central stories of the sacrifice of Isaac with the Crucifixion.) This book bristles on every page with provocative thoughts on community, guilt, sin, sadomasochism, wealth and poverty, Israel, the Middle East, religiously-mixed marriages (he's for them), tribal life, and holiness. His bottom line: the unhappiness of the Jewish person alienated from religion is not caused by the tradition, but the individual reaction to the tradition. To the Jew who says "I gave it up because I had a bad experience with a rabbi", Mamet replies: that's like saying I had a bad experience with a doctor so I gave up medicine. Or I never got married because I had a bad experience with a woman. Get over yourself, in other words: come down off the cross and use the wood to build a bridge to the future.

Mamet quotes more than once the longshoreman/philosopher Eric Hoffer, and "The Wicked Son" does remind me of one of Hoffer's common-sense books. I finished it feeling better and, I hope, thinking much more clearly. All of us who live in the modern world are to some extent apostates; that is, we have experienced the anxiety of loneliness, doubt, and separation from the influences of our parents. But I think anyone who has experienced the joy that can come from participation in a religious community will really identify with and like this book. And those who have closed themselves off from such experiences may get an inkling of what they are missing.

Great Theme--Difficult Read
I agree totally with the theme of this book. Mamet describes a degree of Jewish intentional self-hate and anti-intellectualism about the subject of Judaism that is extraordinary.

It always amazes me when I sit in a synagogue and hear otherwise sophisticated Jews brag of the ignorance of anything Jewish.

Or when individuals who at some level identify as Jews disparage Israel with the same words and hate as Hamas.

The scorching words from Mamet tackle these two types.

But, as much as I agree strongly with the theme, the book is an agony to read. The excerpt on the book cover or in book reviews is as clear as it gets. Passages such as this appear every 15 pages or so. The shrill voice of the author never stops. When one hears a speaker whose only voice is screaming, after a while turning off is the only salvation.

A book like this could be finished in one long flight. It is so ponderous that I avoided taking it on two recent 18 hour flights.

So much more could have been said about the subject in this short book (189 pages), but so much seems to be devoted to Mamet's tirade that it is a hard read. Very clever; very much too clever. It too much reminds me of the high school intellectual trying to show how much she knows rather than an author trying to convey a vital subject to his audience.

Given the anger in tone and the scorn in the picture on the book jacket cover, it is hard to imagine an editor confronting the author. Shame.

I ran out of ink to underline the best parts
I normally underline particularly good passages of any book before i send it to my kids, but i gave up after reading less than half of this book. This book should be mandatory reading for everyone who lives in New York or Hollywood.
As someone who has lived for many years in many countries over the years, it always amazed me as to how delusional most Jews in the USA are about how much they live in an alternate universe that is totally detached from the rest of the world. Mamet is totally correct when he states that this is a very binary equation; you either accept or reject the fact that over many millennia, the Jews are the most hated tribe on the planet. Mamet's treatment of this fact is nothing short of brilliant. I suspect that many of the self-delusional will not wake up to this fact until New York disappears under a mushroom cloud instead of the minor and temporary reduction of the World Trade Center to a heap of rubble. Whether it is a golf club in Washington, a dinner party in Paris, Berlin, or Moscow, the dialog is always the same if there are no Jews in the room; Israel is a mistake, and if Iran wipes it off the face of the earth, well, that is the price you have to pay for "peace in our time" as we did in Munich or in pulling out of Vietnam.

This book is so totally and completely politically incorrect that it will never hit the best seller list, not to mention the fact that it would take many readers of the New York Times into cardiac arrest if they fully understood that most of the world would applaud watching a mushroom cloud eradicate Tel Aviv or New York, just as they did when the World Trade Center fell.

I don't know if Mamet and Horowitz spent much time talking about this premise of this book, but it is yet another wake up call for millions who sleep while those who view them in the same category as pigs and monkeys go about finding a new and improved oven called the Islamic atom bomb. The irony is that their own denial of this truth will probably reduce the Jewish population on the planet by more than half in an instant in a few short years. But they will continue to vote for fellow delusionists as they renew their subscription to the New York Times.
Mamet is somewhat overblown in some of his condemnation of everyone hating the Jews, but I suspect his intended audience; his fellow Jews will hate this book.