Jewish-American Stories

by Irving Howe (Editor)

Jewish-American Stories (Mentor Series)

1 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1977

About the author

Irving Howe was an American literary and social critic and a prominent figure of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Reviews

[Elijah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic stuff!

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

On account of a hat / Sholom Aleichem --3
Story of my dovecot / Isaac Babel --2
Gimpel the fool / Isaac Bashevis Singer --3
*The surveyor / Henry Roth --
*King Solomon / Isaac Rosenfeld --
Tell me a riddle / Tillie Olsen --3
My father sits in the dark / Jerome Weidman --2
What happens next? / Gilbert Rogin --
*Envy; or, Yiddish in America / Cynthia Ozick --
Homage to Benny Leonard / Meyer Liben --
In dreams begin responsibilities / Delmore Schwartz --2
*America! America! / Delmore Schwartz --
No kaddish for Weinstein / Woody Allen --1
Facts of life / Paul Goodman --
The magic barrel / Bernard Malamud --2
Twilight in Southern California / Daniel Fuchs --
*Heart of the artichoke / Herbert Gold --
*The old system / Saul Bellow --
Criers and kibitzers, kibitzers and criers / Stanley Elkin --2
Under the marquee / Wallace Markfield --
Defender of the faith / Philip Roth --4
Back to bread / Michael Seide --
*The man who studied yoga / Norman Mailer --
Sour or suntanned, it makes no difference / Johanna Kaplan --
Waiting for Santy / S.J. Perelman --
The loudest voice / Grace Paley --4

[Ilana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was interesting to read this first collection of Jewish-American stories, after reading the 1992-one, as I was able to notice the change of topics and shift of focus. Although not all the story are equal in terms of literary quality, there is a lot of valuable sociological and anthropological information.

[Erika Dreifus]

I bought a used copy of this book simply to read Howe's famous introduction. Hoping to write more about that sometime soon. Meantime, glad to have the anthology to pick through in due course. So many books! So little time! (So say we all!)

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all the stories in this volume were great, but there were enough great ones to go with 4 stars. Standouts were Heart of the Artichoke and The Magic Barrel.