My God-One Jew's Views: Autobiographical Thoughts and Poems

My God--One Jew's Views: Autobiographical Thoughts and Poems captures in related essays, ruminations, and poems the milestones that mark Joshua Katz's life. He claims his Jewish identity while grappling with its meaning for his life, just as he finds both solace and challenge in contemplating God's role in his daily affairs.

In the course of surveying the author's own life and thoughts, My God--One Jew's Views takes the reader on a journey through times of education, recreation, love, marriage, and the heart-wrenching loss of children through still-birth and suicide. These events provoke thoughts about God's nature, the point of religious practice, and the very search for life's meaning.

Placed like interludes amid honest, introspective prose, are poems that explore the author's feelings as he experiences life's passage. Mixing questions and observations, these poems confront the reader with the essence of the author's life. In "Belief," for example, he writes, "To believe or not--that is life's question. / I think of my wife and smile with comprehension. / Until the waves stop crashing ashore, / Together let's be happy forever more!"

Mem>My God--One Jew's Views: Autobiographical Thoughts and Poems does not avoid the most personal and intimate details of the author's life, yet in that specificity lies the key to making a universal appeal. If you feel love in your life, if you know pain in your days, if you've ever questioned God's purpose or whether religion really matters (regardless of your religion), then My God--One Jew's Views will speak to you.

Joshua Katz, a practicing matrimonial attorney, earned a degree in English literature from the University of Michigan and studied writing at Columbia University. He plays the clarinet professionally, holds tournament rankings in tennis and bridge, and lives in Westchester, New York, with his wife and two surviving children.