Making sense of the past in âAntiquitiesâ
A new Cynthia Ozick novel looks back
By Anthony Domestico Globe Correspondent,Updated April 15, 2021, 4:55 p.m.
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In a story from Cynthia Ozickâs 2008 collection âDictation,â an aging actor recognizes that he still has one strength left: âHis voice he knew passed muster: it was like a yo-yo, he could command it to tighten or stretch, to torque or lift.â Ozick, who turns ninety-three on April 17, remains similarly in command of voice and its modulation. She can sing and she can rant; she can praise and she can castigate. (In 2016, she responded to a negative review with a poem. It opens, âZoë Heller / kicked me down her cellar / (a litâry penitentiary) / for being so âmidcentury.ââ) In essays, stories, and novels, Ozick writes of the mindâs âpersistent internal hum,â and her sentences match this humâs pitch and