SOURCE: Pinsker, Sanford. “Breaking up Is (Sorta) Hard to Do.” Virginia Quarterly Review 76, no. 1 (winter 2000): 183-88.

In the following review, Pinsker notes that, though he disagrees with Podhoretz both political and ideologically, Ex-Friends is a finely crafted and illuminating memoir about the authors's past friendships amongst the post-World War II New York intelligentsia.

Norman Podhoretz's latest effort at blending memoir and cultural commentary [Ex-Friends: Falling out with Allen Ginsberg, Lionel and Diana Trilling, Lillian Hellman, Hannah Arendt, and Norman Mailer] reminds us of just how long and protracted his leave-takings have been. Hence, the rather shameless spin I've put on the rock 'n roll tune that gives this piece its title. For Podhoretz, parting company with all manner of people and ideas has always been difficult, but in an ambivalent, “sorta” way. But what else might one expect from a critic who early on developed a knack for...