"Leading critic/historian Dickstein here turns that spotlight mind on a subject close to home as he details his Lower East Side childhood, then breaking away from his close, observant Jewish family as he discovers Beat-imbued New York and the rich literary life at Columbia University. Then its on to oh-so-proper Yale and Cambridge and the wild Sixties." -- Library Journal "Morris Dickstein's magnetically intimate memoir is as much a record of an ardent young man's besotted hunger for literature as it is of his Zelig-like presence at nearly every significant aesthetic and political turning of the second half of the American twentieth century. And more: first love and first fatherhood; first immersion in the heady air of Cambridge, London, and Paris; portraits of illustrious teachers and critics (Leavis, Trilling, Bloom); the tremors and vagaries of first entering the demanding life of the academy; and an exhilarating glimpse into Dickstein's ripened mastery as he joins the storied generations of influential teachers, mentors, and cultural virtuosos." -- Cynthia Ozick "In this acutely observed, slyly funny memoir, we see the evolution of one of our foremost critics during a watershed moment of cultural history. Dickstein, a precocious, parochial yeshiva boy from the Lower East Side, makes the great trip to Columbia University, losing his virginity and wising up along the way. His naturally expansive sympathies are nurtured under some of the legendary teachers of the day, even as he gets caught up in the turbulence and changing tastes of the sixties. For me, this was both a page-turner and an intellectual joy rideDickstein put me in a front row seat of classes Id give anything to have attended, and discussions I'd love to have been in on." -- Molly Haskell "A humane and benevolent account of an ideal education, by an ideal mentor and guide. A wonderful book." -- Mark Edmundson "Morris Dickstein's new book is at the same time a personal, cultural, and intellectual autobiography and an indispensable study of the tumultuous sixties. Charting the progress of an archetypical Jewish intellectual, Dickstein describes his evolution from Catskills innocent to Ivy League sophisticate, from Jewish minor to English major, from Lower East Side yeshiva bokher to apostle of higher Western learning, all the while paying generous tribute to his teachers, his students, and his friends and family. Written with wit, power, and insight, Why Not Say What Happened is a fascinating exploration of a clearheaded scholar and a controversial age." -- Robert Brustein "An esteemed cultural and literary critic charts the intellectual and religious paths of his early years [ leaving] indelible portraits of his contemporaries and mentors. There's the brilliant Lionel Trilling, who tended to wing his way through lectures; F.R. Leavis, a "slash and burn" critic cowed by his imperious wife; and the redoubtable Harold Bloom, who even then was already the smartest guy in every room Dickstein hasnt lost his zeal for art or ideas or his passion for writing about them." -- Kirkus Reviews "Dicksteins rapt, unabashed delight in literature and his willingness to let it inform his own experience make for an indelible account of the life of the mind." -- Publishers Weekly "[ A] lively, impressionistic account of the intellectual and personal transformation of a brash Jewish kid from New York that paralleled the U.S.'s emergence from the torpor of the 1950s into the political and cultural explosion of the following decade In vivid and entertaining prose, Dickstein describes his educational journey as he moved from his undergraduate years at Columbia College and on to Yale One can only hope he's well on his way to completing another volume." -- Harvey Freedenberg - Shelf Awareness "Insightful [ D]escriptions can glint with illumination, and Mr. Dickstein is charmingly self-effacing as he tries to comprehend his lifes unfolding." -- Edward Rothstein - Wall Street Journal "Though an old-fashioned humanist like his mentors, Dickstein reveals himself to be in synch with his time. Conjuring a lost age of intellect, Dickstein proves the most cheerful of elegists." -- New Yorker "[ An] affecting memoir. As you get deeper into Dicksteins Sentimental Education, you begin to see how far he has traveled from the confines of his Lower East Side Jewish childhood to a deep understanding of Western culture. Whats impressive is how seamlessly everything in Dicksteins story connectshis daily life, his studies and his reactions to the books he reads." -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, Moment
