I Wish it had been longer
The Memory Chalet Every page of this wonderful man's lucid, sane writing had me nodding - in recognition, in admiration, in affection, although of course I never met him. How I wish I had. We have lost so much. How much more he might have written had it not been for his terrible death.
Tony Judt's voice has offered the most quietly devastating critique of our times, and for our times. There is not a word of jargon, no polysyllabic cant, and even no hypocrisy. Very occasionally I found myself disagreeing, perhaps because I am a little more cynical than he was - but always I wished he was right.
His memories of his London childhood, sketched with such a light brush, reminded me of all the details of my own that I had forgotten. His analysis of the world as he grew, his youthful and fervent Zionism - and what caused him to jettison it; his cool head during the 60s student revolutions and his wry acknowledgment of what we westerners had failed to understand then...all, all so clear, so inescapable. Read Tony Judt. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, Ill Fares the Land and anything else you can lay hands on.
Tony Judt's voice has offered the most quietly devastating critique of our times, and for our times. There is not a word of jargon, no polysyllabic cant, and even no hypocrisy. Very occasionally I found myself disagreeing, perhaps because I am a little more cynical than he was - but always I wished he was right.
His memories of his London childhood, sketched with such a light brush, reminded me of all the details of my own that I had forgotten. His analysis of the world as he grew, his youthful and fervent Zionism - and what caused him to jettison it; his cool head during the 60s student revolutions and his wry acknowledgment of what we westerners had failed to understand then...all, all so clear, so inescapable. Read Tony Judt. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, Ill Fares the Land and anything else you can lay hands on.
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