Jewish Writer in America: Assimilation, Identity Crisis "The Jewish Writer in America" by Allen Guttmann. New York Oxford University Press, 1971, 227 pages, notes and.inder. $7.95 ,' A Review by DAN VOGEL Professor of English at Stern College of Yeshiva University, Member of the Editorial Board of Tradition Magazine. (romrism 1972, ETA inc.) Among the kinds of original material—letters, autobiographies, reminiscences, and essays — that future historians must study to interpret the experience of the American Jew, is American Jew- ish fiction and poetry. The inter- pretation of this genre of literature has already become an academic industry, and "The Jewish Writer in America" by Allen Guttmann, a professor at Amherst College, (Oxford University Press), is a notable example . This hook is worth every cent of its cost, and more. Prof. Gutt- mann has the courage to write a bout American Jewish writing not in the fashionable sophisticated mythico-Freudian vein of Leslie Fiedler, nor in the nonpartisan bibliographical manner of Sol Lint- !in His perspective is reasonable and correct: American Jewish lit- erature is the variegated expres- sion of the complex if common- place_ concerns and conflicts of American Jews who found their traditions unequal to the demands of the "golden medina." The com- plexity rises out of a single con- flict: the "shtetl" heritage versus the emancipated life of America. The agony of the fear of assimila- tion, or of the surrender to it, or of resisting it, is the story of American Jewish writing, and Guttmann is entirely right in sub- titling his book with this theme. Indeed, assimilation as a pre- vailing theme distinguishes Ameri- can Jewish writing from its parent literature of the diaspora, Russian Jewish fiction Certainly in the works of Sholom Aleichem Peretz, Mendele. and I. B. Singer, eman- cipation emerges as an intruder upon shtetl life. But just as fre- quently these writers composed stories where this • conflict plays no part. Not so in America. As Gutt- mann show s. the problem of as- similation suffuses the work of everyone, from Emma Lazarus in the 188Cs to Saul Bellow and Chaim Potok in the 1960s. Guttmann discusses this body of writing under three headings -- "The Prornisel Land," "One's Own People," and "The Revolu- tionary Messiah " Adeptly, h organizes a lot of works withoul . pigeonholing them. As a literary critic, Guttmann assesses the lit- erary achievements and failures of almost every Jewish writer in America, certainly all the signif- icant ones, like Mary Antin, Abra- ham, (.'shun. Ludwig Lewisohn, Henry Roth, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth. Norman Mailer, and Saul Bellow. But, reading Gutt- man's survey, one senses a cloud of disappointment hovering over all this talent. What literary epiphany can balance the disillu- sionment in a promised land that demanded assimilation by inter- marriage or outright conversion in return for acceptance: of a con- sciousness of one's own people that feeds on historical suffering, of a realization that Socialism (the last European spiritual heritage) i• lust another god that failed" • • • And yet, because of Guttmann's thoroughness in dealino, with writers of two ',...enerations, one is led to a more ppsiti‘e which Guttmann, however, seems to resist. There are - marranos - among the dozens of writers who tell stories of assimilation and intermarriage, as if this were the path of salvation 43 — Friday, July 7, 1972 Vitamin "H" for Jewish Living: VITAL HEBREW! Not available over the counter, but regularly over Among American Jewish writers, only one, in Guttmann's pantheon, "made it"—Norman Mailer. Every- body else is still reminiscing, ex- plaining, justifying their flirtation with, or surrender to, assimilation. They have not really escaped their ethnic origins. There is no joy or sense of discovery or emotion of release in their works. Thus the crisis of identity goes unresolved. • • • The most popular example of this is Philip Roth. In 1963, Roth tried to de-emphasize his Jewish origins, and separate himself from the Jewish community. But I be- lieve that "Eli the Fanatic" repre- sents Roth better than "The Con- version of the Jews," to which Guttmann gives special signifi- cance. He quotes Roth's pertinent question, "How are you (a Jew) connected to me as another man is not7 - In Tevye's immortal words, I'll tell you: I don't know. But every other country's people have connected Jew to Jew, and many "assimilated" Jews cannot break the connection. Perhaps the search to make this connection theologically clear is the continu- ing challenge of the Jew's most enduring characteristic, the sense of peoplehood. I suggest that Roth depicts this in "Eli the Fanatic," the story of a Jew in suburban wasp country. • • • Admittedly, an optimistic posi- tion on assimilation is perhaps naive and unrealistic. To substan- tiate his thesis that this is properly the major concern of American Jewish writing, Guttmann laces his study with incontestable soci- ologists' statistics and statements about the decline of Jewish observ- ance and the fallacy of hope in rising attendance in synagogue and day school. His synopsis of these studies is frightening and actually leads him into his post- script, entitled. "The End of the Jewish People?" lie concludes his book with the statement, "Paradox- ically, the survival of a significant and identifiably Jewish literature depends upon the unlikely conver- sion to Judaism of a stiff-necked, intractable, irreverent, attractive generation that no longer chooses to he chosen." Yet, not choosing to he chosen does not mean that they won't he chosen anyway_ It's happened before. That Guttmann does not consider this possibility weakens his inter- pretation, it seems to me, of the work of Saul Bellow- . The chapter he devotes to him (the only one on a single author) is the most distant and equivocal. Guttmann identifies the marginality of the Jew as the chief strain of vision in Bellow's works, a feeling of "dangling" somewhat overcome in his masterpiece, "Herzog." But Guttmann disagrees with the critic Irving Malin on what brought Pro- fessor Herzog to a modicum of peace: "The argument is that Jew- ishness can be 'vaguely defined as family feeling or heartfelt truth.' Since Gentiles have been known on occasion to acknowledge kinship's claims and to respond emotionally to verify." Ilerzog's reach for peace is not necessarily Jewish and no longer marginal. That Guttmann engenders such respectful dispute is an indication of the value of his book. His style flow's with urbane simplicity and his ideas are always courteously impressive Above all, they are provocative. demanding each reader to re-evaluate these works. Na greater encomium can he offered by any critic. "The Jewish Writer in America . ' should be read by everyone interested in the American Jewish community and in how- communal experience becomes the stuff of literature. THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS CHANNEL 56 in the Television Course in Functional Hebrew "TO ISRAEL WITH HEBREW" 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 11 4 Public Service of the ZIONIST ORGANIZATION of Detroit ( Detroit District, Zionist Organization of America ) Co-sponsored by Detroit Jewish News Vocabulary for Lesson 8, Tuesday, July I 1 LESSON 8 4 3 11 9'7 PLEASANT (NAIM) REMEMBER (LI ZEOR , 70CMIIM) WORD (MILA ) STOPS, STANDS (OTZ ER ) AGRICULTURAL (CIIAKLAI) WORK (AVODA ) SETTLED (HITYAS 171U) YOUNG MAN, WOMAN (BAC IfUR BACHURA) WINE (YAYIN) DRINKS (SMOTE) CUP, GLASS (KOS) TO HEALTH (LEC HAND'S) DIE PANT (RAC HOK ) BETWEEN, AMONG (BEIM) GROVE (PARDES ) WORK THE LAM (AVODAT ADAM.A ) AGAIN (OD PAAM) PRESIDENT (NAS I) SCIENCE MBA) SCIENTIST (MADAAN ) SCHOLAR, WISE MAN (C HAC HAM) THEY STUDIED (LAND U) LEADER (MANE IG ) ZIONIST (T Z TONI ) n-tnnz r vim) 7'p Ci"Ir! n•ix n-rimr ••-: - ay?) 11Y "a 3 K • IT I r T - OD n r r"ft3 :T 3..Y ri?b • MEDITERRANEAN ( YAM HAT ICHON ) 113 4'P1 0 7 HOUSE ( S ) (DAYIT , B .ATIM ) o'nm ,n7n CL 'MATE ( AKL IM ) SAND ( CHOL ) REVOLT (ME 2ED ) DEVELOPMENT C EN rE TOWN ( ( AYA RAT P I TUAC El ) (ME R_KAZ ) 7123 T1 4 [I p. n1.717 D -16 T :