Growing Up Jewish: An Anthology

Plot

From Library Journal
America is a great ocean of stories. This volume of excerpts contains stories and essays about being Jewish and young in 20th-century America. Despite the anti-Semitism and poverty they detail, the personal anecdotes and descriptions are fascinating windows into other people's joys and successes. Many of the pieces are excerpts from novels, e.g., Philip Roth's The Facts and Chaim Potok's The Chosen. Editor David (Growing Up Black, Avon, 1992. rev. ed.) has divided the selections into three parts: "Making Their Way," "Discovering 'Americanness,' " and "New Voices." The closeness and the estrangement of the generations and between men and women are the motifs of many of the writers. Cynthia Ozick's beautiful selection describes both "Yiddishkeit" and a writer's childhood. Ari Goldman's memoir of his life after the divorce of his parents is especially poignant. A good introduction to Jewish life in America.?Gene Shaw, NYPL
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
David has collected 26 stories and essays by Jewish American writers from the nineteenth century to the 1990s. Part 1 explores the experiences of some first-generation immigrants and includes an excerpt from Edna Ferber's 1938 autobiography, A Peculiar Treasure. The pieces in part 2 show how Jewish life gradually became Americanized; included are an excerpt from Chaim Potok's novel The Chosen, Grace Paley's story "The Loudest Voice," an autobiographical essay by Cynthia Ozick, and an excerpt from Philip Roth's autobiography. In part 3, three writers tell what it's like growing up in the U.S. today. Anne Roiphe, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Max Apple, Kate Simon, and Herbert Gold are among those featured. All 26 pieces, some by lesser known but equally talented writers, explore the issues of Jewish identity and heritage. George Cohen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.