SOURCE: Als, Hilton. “Birth in Venice.” New Yorker 71, no. 21 (24 July 1995): 88-89.

In the following review, Als commends Brodkey's unique narrative style.

A penchant for projecting my life into the margins of almost any writer's text was tempered when, at the age of twenty-three, I discovered Harold Brodkey's fiction, in this magazine. The publication of his long story “Nonie,” in 1984, alerted me to the presence of one who clearly owned the page his work appeared on:

Did Nonie feel real pain? Nonie was often miserable psychically—and she had bad monthly cramps. She was dramatic over scratches, cuts, her periods, and being snubbed. … Did she feel pain to match the pain she caused? Or was it that any pain triggered her demand for justice? She burned to death—maybe that hurt. … Do you love your sister? Probably. It's enjoined. I still don't care much what happened to her. If...