Search Results

“... mind, a myriad eyes on myriad worlds.’ Spring Sonata is an odd, fantastical work. The author, Bernice Rubens, gambles on bringing to life an extravagant allegory. For me the result is a brave but resounding failure, though from time to time I glimpse the potentialities of the idea. The hero, Buster, is an embryo in the womb of Sheila Rosen, a ...”

“... Messiah, an important figure in the history of Judaism, I must confess to knowing nothing until Bernice Rubens captured my interest in the remarkable existence and rum doings of one Sabbatai Zvi, holy roller, profligate, manic-depressive, loving son, passionate friend, a light never quite to lighten the gentiles, but certainly a light of a fitful and ...”

“... and art. One finds no mention of Feinstein, Jacobson, Abse, Silkin, Litvinoff, Josipovici or Bernice Rubens; no mention of Bomberg, Kotiliansky or Kitaj. Alderman thinks an adequate account of Isaac Rosenberg is to give the dates of his birth and death. There is no pride in the achievements of Anglo-Jewry; there is not even any curiosity: ‘it was ...”

“... the other people on the panel just blinked at me and moved swiftly on. I recall, too, the novelist Bernice Rubens saying in an interview that she would rather never have written a word than have split up with her husband. This distressed me on the grounds of both literature and love. It’s absolutely true that writing a book doesn’t make you happy ...”