SOURCE: Welch, Colin. “Not Sammy Davis, Les Dawson.” Spectator 259, no. 8312 (7 November 1987): 41-2.

In the following review, Welch commends Epstein as a perceptive, thoughtful, and humorous essayist.

It is Joseph Epstein's contention, in a hilarious essay called ‘They Said You Was High Class’, that Robert Lowell's distinguished ‘WASP’ genealogy must have helped him as a poet. His ancestors' close acquaintance with the Cabots and, through them, with God, gave him the confidence to tackle any idea or theme, seriously. To prove his point, Mr Epstein asks:

What if Lowell's poem, ‘My Last Afternoon with Uncle Devereux Winslow’ were instead entitled ‘My Last Afternoon with Uncle Morris Shapiro’, or his ‘Terminal Days at Beverly Farms’ were instead entitled ‘Terminal Days at Grossinger's’? [Actually, given the resort's famously rich provender, any day at Grossinger's could be terminal.] Not quite the same, perhaps you will agree.

Certainly I agree: not quite the...