This is the full text of J. Michael Lennon’s review of David Denby’s Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer, published in Hippocampus Magazine on 6 May 2025. Rights to the article are reserved — see the frontmatter rights-note. See the Work page: Review of Eminent Jews, and the book itself: Eminent Jews.
David Denby took on quite a job of work when he decided to depict the lives of four famous 20th-Century Americans: Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer in Eminent Jews (Henry Holt and Co.; April 2025).