To the Editor:
Your choice of Midge Decter to review Mila 18 [“Popular Jews,” October] is bewildering. How objective can a reviewer be about the author of Mila 18 if she “adamantly refused to read Exodus for two years”?
Midge Decter refers to Uris’s work as “pornographic” and “hard-core trash,” and yet she confesses to sitting through the night to finish his novel in one reading. Why is “confession” necessary?
The reviewer seems more concerned with analyzing the author’s motivation in choosing a Jewish theme than in reviewing the contents and style of the book itself.
After reading the critique of Mila 18 and recalling your recent symposium of young intellectuals, I question whether our Jewish critics can objectively review novels of Jewish content by Jewish authors.
Irving Bernstein
Beverly Hills, California
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