Jewish Literary Biography, United States - Ethnic & Race Relations, U.S. Authors - General & Miscellaneous - Literary Biography, Immigrants - Biography, Cultural Assimilation - Jews, Jewish Identity, American Jews - Biography, Children of Immigrants

Writing Our Lives: Autobiographies of American Jews, 1890-1990

Name: Writing Our Lives: Autobiographies of American Jews, 1890-1990
Author: Steven J. Rubin
ISBN: 9780827603936

by Steven J. Rubin

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Overview

Twenty-eight selections from the writings of some of the best-known American-Jewish novelists, dramatists, critics, and historians span the social and cultural history of American Jews in the twentieth century. Often joyous, occasionally tragic, they provide a fascinating record—from immigration to assimilation, from life in the ghetto to the current movement by many to recapture their Jewish identity. At once personal and historical, the selections are poignant and moving testimonies to the perseverance of the American-Jewish people.

Synopsis

The twenty-eight selections from the writings of some of the best-known novelists, dramatists, critics, and historians span the social and cultural history of American Jews in the twentieth century. Often joyous, occasionally tragic, they provide a fascinating record -- from immigration to assimilation, from life in the ghetto to the current movement by many to recapture their Jewish identity.

Library Journal

Rubin (English, Univ. of South Florida) believes that the art of autobiography reflects the true history of the 20th-century American Jew. He has compiled 28 autobiographical selections from a variety of prominent Jewish voices. He focuses on the immigrants and descendants of the Russian Jewish floodtide of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Selections range from the first through the third generations of writers. Many of the pieces are culled from easily available best-selling books by such authors as Saul Bellow, Arthur Miller, Philip Roth, and Irving Howe, to name a few. Some of the lesser-known women writers (Mary Antin, Rebekah Bettelheim Kohut, Leah Morton) make the book more useful. Altogether, this is an interesting, very readable anthology, but not an essential purchase.-- Paul Kaplan, Dakota Cty. Lib., Eagan, Minn.