A collection probing the idiosyncrasies and dilemmas of contemporary Jewish life deftly and with humor captures the struggle of merging group tradition with individuality and modernism, from the school, to the workplace, to personal relationships

Reviews

This exhilarating collection of 11 short stories marks the debut of a precocious 21-year-old Radcliffe College student. Most of Goodman's characters are observant Jews living in a believably rendered Oxford, England or Honolulu, Hawaii. While committed to fixed principles, these people must adapt to a shifting, alien and seductive world. Without ridicule, Goodman satirizes characters whose predicaments she, and most readers, share. In one story, a brilliant scholar must return to her roots not because she suddenly perceives the value of her culture but because her parents squander her tuition on a sister's wedding. In others, by turns grim and hilarious, reality and ideas clash in timeless fashion. But there is hope: "Improvement counts . . . you can all redeem yourself on the final," says French professor Sandra Lefkowitz in the title story; like her students, she is trying to find her place in an alien college community. Yet Goodman does not hinge her narratives on a single epiphany. She has an insight into human nature well beyond her chronological years, and, as evidenced here, a concise but resonant writing style that more mature writers might strive to emulate.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this dazzling collection of short stories, replete with razor-sharp perceptions and a sense of high comedy, the 21-year-old Goodman reveals herself to be an accomplished artist. The stories focus on Orthodox Jews transplanted to Hawaii and Oxford, whom Goodman lampoons for their slavish devotion to ritual and comedic jockeying for status."Retrospective," the collection's crown jewel, is a fine example of the author's ability to meld humor with pathos. The socially ambitious Henny is mortified when a museum curator decides to exhibit a series of paintings depicting her aged sister Lillian in the nude. As in many of these stories, the author wittily couches her observations in Henny's idiosyncratic speech and thought patterns, giving the reader intimate acccess to her psyche. Goodman is a "thinking person's" writer who will undoubtedly attract a literate, sophisticated audience.
- Alice Shane, New York City
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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