Unveiling the Complex Legacies of Bernstein, Brooks, Freidan, and Mailer: A Provocative Review by David Denby
Diving into the lives of Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer all at once—now that’s a tall order, even for the most seasoned biographer. David Denby, in Eminent Jews, doesn’t just take a stab at it, he embraces the chaos, the brilliance, and the controversies with a gusto that’s as unbuttoned as the characters themselves. How do you capture the wildness and wonder of four towering figures—each a child of immigrants, each a New Yorker—without losing the thread amid triumphs, scandals, and moments of raw, unabashed humanity? It’s the kind of balancing act that makes you wonder if authorial patience has limits… Denby pulls it off with a keen eye and a storyteller’s grace, never shrinking from the more scandalous details yet always delivering a narrative as rich and textured as the postwar world these icons helped shape. If you’ve ever pondered how Jewish identity morphed on the American stage—shedding old reticence while turning the dial up to eleven on creativity and controversy—this book’s your backstage pass. And trust me, some of the anecdotes, like a young Mel Brooks fearing a subway-savvy Frankenstein, just might change the way you look at classic comedy forever.
Reviewed by J. Michael Lennon
David Denby took on quite a job of work when he decided to depict the lives of four famous 20th-Century Americans: Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer in Eminent Jews (Henry Holt and Co.; April 2025).
