Zweig’s symbol of shtetl authenticity was actually its fiercest critic

Evidence

(Ironically, Zweig cites Mendele as a symbol of this insular world of the shtetl, when in fact Mendele was among the earliest and most acerbic critics of what he saw as a deeply impoverished existence.) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 415

Categorization

• CANDY: A compact irony: a writer invoked a critic as the emblem of what the critic attacked.