Who We Are

May 9, 2005
The recent death of Saul Bellow casts an unintended perspective on this anthology. Bellow is the first writer in it, and younger writers, such as Jonathan Rosen, acknowledge their debt to him. Moreover, his sidestepping of the Jewish literary question with the semi-dismissive "I am a Jew, and I have written some books" becomes a touchstone for many of the other 28 authors to agree with or reject. The large cast, spanning several generations, creates a distinct layering effect: Philip Roth reflects on the virulent reaction against his early short stories; later, Binnie Kirshenbaum admits that Goodbye, Columbus
was the first book that "got under my skin." The solemnity of the debate over identity is frequently lightened by humor. Max Apple splits his inner self into a squabbling duo, the assimilationist Max and the hyper-Yiddish Mottele, while Art Spiegelman contributes a two-page cartoon about being "just another baby-boom boy" overwhelmed by memory. Women are particularly well represented in the youngest generation, including Lara Vapnyar, Tova Mirvis and Yael Goldstein. As the argument over what constitutes authentic Jewish fiction continues to be revisited (most recently by Wendy Shalit in the New York Times Book Review
), these thoughtful essays take on added relevance.

May 9, 2005
The recent death of Saul Bellow casts an unintended perspective on this anthology. Bellow is the first writer in it, and younger writers, such as Jonathan Rosen, acknowledge their debt to him. Moreover, his sidestepping of the Jewish literary question with the semi-dismissive "I am a Jew, and I have written some books" becomes a touchstone for many of the other 28 authors to agree with or reject. The large cast, spanning several generations, creates a distinct layering effect: Philip Roth reflects on the virulent reaction against his early short stories; later, Binnie Kirshenbaum admits that Goodbye, Columbus was the first book that "got under my skin." The solemnity of the debate over identity is frequently lightened by humor. Max Apple splits his inner self into a squabbling duo, the assimilationist Max and the hyper-Yiddish Mottele, while Art Spiegelman contributes a two-page cartoon about being "just another baby-boom boy" overwhelmed by memory. Women are particularly well represented in the youngest generation, including Lara Vapnyar, Tova Mirvis and Yael Goldstein. As the argument over what constitutes authentic Jewish fiction continues to be revisited (most recently by Wendy Shalit in the New York Times Book Review ), these thoughtful essays take on added relevance.

April 15, 2005
Rubin (Utrecht Univ.; coeditor, "Religion in America: European and American Perspectives") has collected essays from 29 Jewish American writers, of which about half were written especially for this volume. Arranged chronologically by the authors' date of birth, beginning with Saul Bellow and ending with Yael Goldstein, the essays represent three generations of writers. Some of the themes explored include religion, the immigrant experience, the destruction of European Jewry, and the autonomy of the imagination. Pearl Abraham, Rebecca Goldstein, Nessa Rapoport, and Allegra Goodman write of the place of religion in Jewish American literature; Binnie Kirshenbaum describes the upper-class suburban Jew as a writer; Lev Raphael writes from a gay perspective; Thane Rosenbaum and Jonathan Rosen write about literature and Jewish life from the viewpoints of a lawyer and an editor; Lara Vapnyar writes about emigration from Russia to the United States; and Johanna Kaplan's "Tales of My Great-Grandfathers" is a wonderful evocation of the Jewish European past. Other notable contributors include Chaim Potok, Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, Philip Roth, and E.L. Doctorow. A wide-ranging and eclectic group of essays, this collection clearly shows the state of contemporary Jewish American fiction. Recommended for Jewish studies collections. -Gene Shaw, NYPL

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2005
Writers are often defined in terms of their ethnicity or religion, but do fiction writers necessarily write as members of a group, or as representatives of a culture or tradition? Just because an American writer is Jewish, is it valid to label him or her a Jewish American writer? Literature professor Rubin invited Jewish American writers to weigh in on this contentious subject, and the result is a thought-provoking, engaging anthology of 29 candid essays about everything from anti-Semitism to the Old Testament to the "purposes and possibilities" of fiction, to quote Philip Roth. A scathing essay by Saul Bellow is followed by Grace Paley's more tender musings and the piquant rigor of Cynthia Ozick; E. L. Doctorow; mother and daughter Rebecca Goldstein and Yael Goldstein; Jonathan Rosen; and Allegra Goodman, as well as witty disputations by Leslie Epstein, Max Apple, and Erica Jong. Rubin's compendium is as timely as it is intriguing, given the fact that we are in the midst of a new wave of Jewish American literature.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)