American Jewish Fiction: A Century of Stories

By: Shapiro, Gerald

Book Overview

This anthology presents an ambitious cross-section of Jewish American short fiction. It covers a full century of extraordinary writings, from turn-of-the-century immigrant fiction to stories by some of the finest young contemporary American writers. To read through its pages is to encounter a remarkable--and remarkably diverse--literary tradition. The volume opens with stories by two important immigrant writers from the early twentieth century, Abraham Cahan and Anzia Yezierska. There follows a generous selection of modern Jewish American stories by such celebrated authors as Isaac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, Grace Paley, Tillie Olsen, Bernard Malamud, and Philip Roth. The collection concludes with a rich sampling of stories by contemporary writers whose works illustrate the impressive variety and vitality of recent Jewish American fiction. Equally suited to scholars, students, and general readers, American Jewish Fiction provides an invaluable survey of literary works that have enriched and transformed American--and world--literature.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080329252X
• ISBN13: 9780803292529
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

The ongoing conversation of Jewish American Literature

In his astute introduction to this volume Gerald Shapiro points to a previous anthology of Jewish stories edited close to thirty years before by Irving Howe. Howe saw his anthology as as the swan- song of American- Jewish literature, the movement of a moment which had had its moment in the 50's and 60's and now was gone. Shapiro writing three decades later says that the report of the demise of American Jewish writing was premature. He offers as evidence the work of a bevy of young writers for whom Jewishness is a central theme of their work. He argues that this question of Jewish identity, along with the question of religious faith and skepticism are two central themes of American- Jewish Literature throughout. Shapiro does not rely on contemporaries alone. This fine anthology goes back with Cahan and Yezeirska to the Yiddish background beginnigs of American- Jewish Literature. It includes a long list of important American - Jewish writers, and concludes with a group of contemporaries, Michelle Herman, Melvin Bukiet, Allegra Goodman, Helen Schulman. It of course contains works by Bellow, Roth, Malamud, Ozick, and the finest of all Jewish storytellers, I.B. Singer. Shapiro says that he sees 'literature' as an ongoing conversation and makes connection between various works which speak to each other. Perhaps not all, but I am sure many of these works will speak to the reader in a persuasive and moving way.