San Antonio College Library

This evocative portrait of the American Jewish experience illustrates the clash between the "Inside" of tradition and religion, and the "Outside" of the glittery American dream. Israel David Goodkind is a minor bureaucrat in the Nixon White House, killing empty office time by writing the story of four generations of his large, sprawling Russian-Jewish immigrant family. As he recounts his brief stint in show business, his torrid affair with a showgirl,...

"Love, talent, and magic oppose - and sometimes vanquish - anti-Semitism, totalitarianism, and vulgarity in this collection of new and selected stories by David Shrayer-Petrov." "From the deceptively simple narrative (Apple Cider Vinegar, Hurricane Bob) to the surrealist story (Dismemberers) and the magical tale (Jonah and Sarah and Lanskoy Road), the tempo fluctuates, but throughout, Shrayer-Petrov seamlessly preserves familiar voices. The stories...

The novel, set in the Bronx, New York, concerns a gifted Jewish boy who becomes a Biblical scholar. From shortly after birth, in the 1920's, David Lurie is plagued by illnesses that prove to be emblematic of his growing up. He is bullied by bigger boys, haunted by the "accidents" that he brings upon others, safe only within his pious home. David's inner life, tortured with fears and bad dreams is followed through the Depression, which nearly ruins...

"By examining both the spiritual and literary elements that make works such as My Name Is Asher Lev (1972) best-sellers, this Critical Companion helps readers gain an appreciation for the considerable literary achievements of Chaim Potok. A close reading is given for each of Potok's eight novels, including his most recent novel set in the Korean War, I Am the Clay (1992). A full chapter on each title examines character and plot development, major...

A collection of Jewish stories, set in Europe and America, some presented with magic realism. Subjects include relations with Christians and conflict between religion and the secular.

Through new close readings of Holocaust fiction, this book takes the field of Holocaust Studies in an important new direction. Reading a wide range of narratives representing different nationalities, styles, genders, and approaches, Horowitz demonstrates that muteness not only expresses the difficulty in saying anything meaningful about the Holocaust - it also represents something essential about the nature of the event itself. The radical negativity...

Yasha Mazur, a conventional husband who entertains his cronies on secret trips to the underworld of Warsaw by performing feats of magic finally crosses the thin line that separates playboy from criminal. Yasha uses his skills to crack the safe of the wealthy Kazimierz Zuriski and from then on he becomes an outcast and a hunted man.

"Originally titled For the Sake of Heaven, Gog and Magog is a fictional religious chronicle in which the heroes are Hasidic rabbis. The setting for the novel is Poland and Hungary during the Napoleonic wars at the end of the eighteenth century. Although magic and superstition play their parts in the story, it is really Martin Buber's effort to articulate two approaches to the question: May men use evil to accomplish good? May men take power into their...