acknowledges their relatively non-religious lives and the lack of overt Jewish themes in much of their work. However, he also notes: “Their relation to Judaism was less formal than emotional and temperamental, and, as they made art, advanced their ideas, they jumped away from elements in Jewish cultural tradition even as they gained strength from it. They were free in ways that Jews had never been free in any society of the past.”

The author’s last sentence is undeniably correct. Post-World War II America was the first place where referring to someone as a Jew was no longer an automatic slur. Mel Brooks clothed himself in his religion in every script he wrote or routine he performed (although he largely avoided stereotypical themes like Jews’ supposed cheapness). Leonard Bernstein went to great lengths to stage performances in Israel and other venues of religious significance for Jews. However, people rarely thought of Betty Friedan as a Jewish feminist. (The author notes that many of her fellow feminists of the era were also Jewish.) Also, while Norman Mailer’s best novel, The Naked and the Dead (1948), contains two significant Jewish characters, the book adopts the typical view of its era that World War II combat units were “melting pots,” composed of men from all segments of American society.   

Although each of Denby’s subjects could easily support a full-length biography, he packs a lot of content (much of which will be new to most readers) into these 100-page chapters. He is especially interested in the business end of his subject’s careers—how they got in front of the public. Betty Friedan’s seminal work, The Feminine Mystique, was rejected by several magazine publishers before she expanded it into what became a runaway best-selling book. After 1960, Norman Mailer’s success was predicated mainly on works commissioned by periodicals, such as his report on the 1967 anti-Vietnam War march on the Pentagon, which became his Pulitzer Prize-winning Armies of the Night. Leonard Bernstein collaborated with various artists over a decade to bring his theatrical works, such as West Side Story, to Broadway. Mel Brooks first caught the public’s attention when he made a series of best-selling comedy albums about the 2,000-Year-Old Man with co-creator Carl Reiner.

The author also devotes considerable attention to the upbringings of his eminences, mostly in middle-class households of the 1920s and 1930s. They were all the objects of anti-Semitism to some degree, especially in college, but the author can’t tie those experiences specifically to their later lives. Denby’s material on his subjects’ romantic lives will be far more interesting for most people. Only Mel Brooks had a long, successful marriage (to actress Anne Bancroft). Betty Friedan’s husband, Carl Friedan, consistently abused her while she was researching and writing “The Feminine Mystique.” Norman Mailer had six wives (one of whom he stabbed after an argument, which resulted in his being charged with assault) and many mistresses and one-night stands. Leonard Bernstein had an outwardly perfect family life with his wife and children, while he had several gay affairs and casual encounters.

Denby’s discussion of his four eminences extends to various acquaintances, with two- to three-page biographical sketches of several of them, mostly those who were Jewish. The gay Jewish composer Aaron Copland became Bernstein’s mentor while the latter was in college. Betty Friedan worked and later clashed with Jewish feminists like Bella Abzug and Gloria Steinem. Mel Brooks’ big break came when he was hired as a writer on Sid Caesar’s television show. Occasionally, however, the author’s diversions become distractions. He devotes several pages to the career of Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan, whose life and career roughly parallel Bernstein’s. His “feud” with Bernstein was well-publicized in classical music circles. Still, that rivalry gets much less attention than the several mentions of von Karajan’s career before he ever met Bernstein.

David Denby brings a unique, valuable perspective to Eminent Jews. He conducted many interviews with Brooks and Mailer. As a journalist and film critic, he is highly familiar with the book’s subject matter. He also conducted exhaustive research on his subjects. However, the book sometimes becomes more about Denby than his eminences. His efforts to tie their careers to their religion are occasionally dense and boring. He also seemed to lose interest in the later stages of Friedan and Mailer’s careers, giving the last decades of their lives short shrift. Still, the book contains an abundance of fascinating content about four celebrities with whom I had a generally superficial prior knowledge. That information is more than enough to make Eminent Jews eminently worthwhile.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.