Tablet Likes Novelist Dara Horn

Tablet magazine likes novelist Dara Horn calling her, "the Best of the New Breed of Jewish Novelists."

Her new book is "A Guide for the Perplexed".

She recently wrote a provocative column in the NYT Book Review - "Articles of Faith" - with which we have a quibble.

Horn discusses the Jewish capacity to value memory as if we Jews are the only one's who do that, or at least that we Jews do it better than other cultures and groups.

I have said for years that it is not the intensity of memory that makes us distinctive. It is the nature of the memory, the profound self-centeredness of our memory which shows up in two ways.

First, we really never forget when someone harms us. Second, in the great dramatic narrative of our memories, we are always on center-stage, always the stars of the show.

So I go beyond what Horn says: it's not just the constancy and the volume of the music of our memories, it's the particular tune that makes us distinctive.