Canon and Creativity: Modern Writing and the Authority of Scripture. By Robert Alter. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000. Pp. x + 198. $18.50.

Although the subject of this book is a large one-nothing less than the Hebrew Bible's literary influence-the pleasures that it affords to readers resemble those that sonnets provide. There is the sheer physical pleasure of holding this trim little book. Its cloth covers measure 5 by 8 inches, and the large print never adds up to more than twenty-six lines per page. Even an excruciatingly slow reader, awed by others' estimated reading times, can manage to complete it in a weekend. The handsome, coiled, metallic design on the jacket (for all practical purposes anonymous, since the copyright page contains no attribution) evokes primal as well as contemporary associations, like the Bible itself.

Jason P. Rosenblatt
Georgetown University