Blocking Punches.

This book is not about being a father. It is not about being a soldier, or student. This book is about being a communist- and communist in the most romantic innocent way, a way that was only possible prior to McCarthyism and the atrocities under Stalin. This is a coming of age novel. As the complaints in our last class rejoined, Bernstein never really has to accept responsibility or answer questions about his identity until his creative powers are questioned, and ultimately denied. If nothing else, his detachedness from reality only highlights that he is in no way a threat to the American way of life, and the inanity of the blacklist. Creative people live for, and through their work. Bernstein not only has his livelihood severely compromised by the blacklist- even the quality of the movies, his constant solace, begin to suffer as a result of the hysteria striking the film industry.

The most telling passage from this book, and an apt metaphor, is his discussion of the boxers he came to interview and spend time with. Rocky Graziano "…had been a good boy. He had conformed. And in the process, he had lost what had made him successful." As much as we can complain that Bernstein is a less than perfect husband, father, soldier; the things that spell m-a-n in 1950's America, denouncing communism, and naming names, as his mother agrees, is not an option. When describing the La Motta-Robinson fight, we see Bernstein's admiration for Robinson, who having recently been beaten by La Motta, "...just let La Motta swing at him. Robinson ducked and bobbed and weaved and didn't throw a punch. He was not hurt; he was showing off. Or maybe he was just showing La Motta the difference between talent and genius. Or proving something to himself."

Similarly revealing is the passage where Bernstein's daughter asks him whether he believes in God, and where we see Bernstein's crisis come to a head. "She wanted to know where I stood." Does one recant one's beliefs to avoid the consequences of disapproval? Bernstein, to this point in the book, has not. He has, if anything, proved his creativity in continuing to write and profit from it in the face of censorship, while remaining true to his beliefs. And this, this is admirable.