Cynthia Ozick's stature as a writer came through a long apprenticeship, during which she often read eighteen hours a day. Having so intensely lived within literature herself, she can by a few deft allusions weave a veil of bookish imaginings through which a character views the world. Her mastery of the entire canon has earned her a reputation as a writer's writer. Equally adept in any genre, she has achieved recognition as a poet, essayist, novelist, author of short fiction, and playwright. With an immense stylistic repertoire, she can parody the work of other writers.

The serious theme Ozick engages comically is the status of Jewish thought in a secular world. This concern has earned her a readership abroad and the translation of her work into eleven languages. Two recent critical assessments of her work -- one by Sarah Blacher Cohen on her humor, the other by Elaine...