Total Immersion: Stories

By Allegra Goodman

Book Overview

The first collection of stories by the celebrated author of The Family Markowitz and the upcoming debut novel, Kaaterskill Falls. Out of print since 1993, this critically acclaimed collection explores the lives of richly drawn characters caught between their own longings and the expectations of family and community.In the twelve stories of Total Immersion, Allegra Goodman views the stresses and ironies of the contemporary (often Jewish) world with a knowledge and self-confidence that are startling. Take Cecil Birnbaum of Variant Text (who will later appear in Kaaterskill Falls) -- Oxford househusband, Shavian scholar and an adamantly observant Jew who remains agnostic. Cecil's children attend a progressive Orthodox day school where they deal with issues of faith (Hashem or Darwin? You decide) and their teachers and parents worry about the dress code (halakhah or Piaget?).Ed Markowitz is in Oxford too in Wish List, at the Wantage Centre where he lectures on Shiite terrorism. He's forced to question the usefulness of his scholarship while Sarah writes her novel, meanwhile playing the role of scholar's wife.The Succession takes place in Honolulu, where the old Rabbi Siegal's treacherous magniloquence makes the congregation think he should retire, yet the younger rabbi is involved in a real estate scare and his ambitious wife has fled.Ginnie of Fait' is from a Filipino family in Hawaii, and she's back from college at Berkeley to attend her sister's wedding. The proud, liberal-minded daughter suddenly finds her family embarrassingly provincial and uneducated, yet when her college boyfriend visits, Ginnie finds him all wrong in her home.Allegra Goodman does notmerely score on such developments as kosher luaus; she uses them to focus and explore the timeless tug between tradition and acculteration in which the assurances of the past sometimes provide striking answers to the questions of the present.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060159987
• ISBN13: 9780060159986
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

I'm amazed...

Did she really write these stories at 21? I'm seething with envy. Allegra Goodman is everything the back cover promised - gifted, brilliant, swift to get to the truth of things. She's also full of gentle irony and very, very perceptive. I must, however, say that the fact that the stories in the book deal with almost exclusively Jewish characters may somewhat hinder its being enjoyed by readers unfamiliar with that religion and background. But, all in all, it is a wonderful collection of stories both intelligent and tremendously funny.

Light Touch Disguises 21 Year Old Writer's Deft Insight

This is the second book I have read by Allegra Goodman. Last year I read her beautiful novel "Kaaterskill Falls" which was a deserving National book Award finalist. In that work, which was a much more serious one than this earlier book, she depicted in beautiful detail the struggles within a small Jewish religious community. This has sent me back to her earlier books. "Total Immersion" is her first, a collection of short stories which Ms. Goodman published at the age of 21. To put it quite simply, I am just astounded at the talent and insight into a broad range of human types and settings which this writer has shown at the tender age of 21! She writes with total maturity and self-assurance. In these stories she again explores the world of small (mostly Jewish) communities in a variety of settings, mainly in Hawaii of all places! The stories are light in touch and always a pleasure to read. The characters and conflicts are well drawn and all balloons of pretension are mercilessly punctured by the author's delightful wit. Ms. Goodman has also included an extremely handy glossary at the back of her book with all the Jewish and Hawaiian terms used in her stories. Now I can't wait to read "The Family Markowitz" (her next collection) and I am eager to see what she will produce to follow the wonderful "Kaaterskill Falls".