A Literary Journey to Jewish Identity: Re-Reading Bellow, Roth, Malamud, Ozick, and Other Great Jewish Writers

by Steven Shepard

Overview

Born and raised Jewish, Stephen B. Shepard ceased to be observant by the time he entered college. He simply retreated into his own private diaspora: a Jew in name only, a non-religious member of the tribe, linked only tenuously to the heritage, culture, and social values of Judaism. Yet he was aware that there was a flowering of Jewish writing in post-war America : and that many of the authors he was reading were Jewish. What, he wondered, did it mean to be a Jewish-American writer? Was there such a thing as a Jewish novel? Why did he care so much about these books? In this literary memoir, Shepard explores his encounters with a few writers who influenced his sense of Jewish identity: and his ultimate return to the fold. He describes the anti-Semitism directed at Saul Bellow; details the literary feud between Philip Roth and Bernard Malamud; muses about the "Jewish" John Updike; and contemplates anew the horror of the Holocaust in the work of Cynthia Ozick. Shepard writes as an enthusiastic reader, a fan watching his team play.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940158988851
Publisher:	Bayberry Books
Publication date:	02/01/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	335 KB

About the Author

Stephen B. Shepard is the founding dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. His tenure as dean ran from 2005 to 2013. Earlier, he served as senior editor at Newsweek, editor of Saturday Review and editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek. He was president of the American Society of Magazine Editors from 1992 to 1994 and was inducted into its hall of fame in 1999. His first book, Deadlines and Disruption: My Turbulent Path From Print To Digital, was published by McGraw-Hill in September 2012. His second book, published in 2018 by Bayberry Books, is A Literary Journey to Jewish Identity: Re-Reading Bellow, Roth, Malamud, Ozick, and Other Great Jewish Writers. He and his wife, Lynn Povich, live in New York.