Before or after,

Mario's is the finest Italian dining
experience in Metropolitan Detroit.

Attending Joseph

and the
Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat?

Woody Allen, Erica Jong and Max Apple are among the 27 authors contributing to
"Neurotica: Jewish Writers on Sex.''

excerpt from Erica Jong's Fear of
Flying includes a scathing descrip-
tion of a one-time singer who
merges with her own ironic depic-
tion of the Jewish pseudo-intellectu-
al. "In a whiny and deliberately
unmusical voice, she sang the saga, of
a Jewish girl who takes courses at
the New School, reads the Bible for
its prose, discusses Martin Buber in
bed and falls in love with her ana-
lyst. She has now become one with
the role she created."
The acquiescence of both characters
to the stereotype of the Jewish pseudo-
intellectual evokes a theme that crops
up again and again in Neurotica:
Jewish identity.
Who are Jews? Have we become
our own stereotypes and latched onto
a ready-made identity? Are we who we
think we are, who they think we are
or somewhere in between?
For starters, Erica Jong points out,
we're people who question everything.
"Q: 'Why does a Jew always answer a
question with a question?' A: And
why should a Jew not answer a ques-
tion with a question?' "
Neurotica is, in fact, full of ques-
tions — questions about identity,
questions about sex, questions about
how the two intertwine.
Saul Bellow asks in "A Wen" if we
can relive the early rapture of adoles-
cent flowering. Can we love again
the way we did the first time? In
"Worst-Case Scenarios," Gerald
Shapiro ponders if sex with one
we've hankered for all our lives
makes us who we've always wanted
to be. Max Apple, in "The Eighth
Day," considers how circumcision
might affect or interfere with our
ability to know ourselves and relate
to our lovers. Philip Roth, in an
excerpt from The Counterlife, ques-
tions the shades of difference
between the roles we play and who
we actually are.
Peopled by Jewish characters,
laughing with Jewish wit and aching
with Jewish longing and loss,

Mario's provides...

Neurotica is a sometimes grotesque,
sometimes harrowing portrayal of
the complicated role of sex in the
modern world and a testament to a
people's talent for spinning pain into
gold. E

• Complimentary shuttle to and
from all major Metropolitan
Detroit events.

• Music and ballroom dancing
Friday and Saturday evenings

Run Catch Kiss

• Complimentary buffet after
the theater

CURT SCHLEIER

Special to the Jewish News

A

merica is a wonderful country.
Where else could a young
Jewish girl from Brooklyn get a book
contract and a great job by writing
about her sex life? The young girl in
question is Amy Sohn, 25, author of
the recently published Run Catch Kiss
(Simon & Shuster; $23).
Sohn's book is a novel, a fictional
narrative about a nice, young, Jewish
girl from Brooklyn who gets a book
contract and a great job by writing
about her sex life. As the French say,
quelle coincidence.
Until very recently, Sohn wrote
the "Female Trouble" column for the
New York Press, an alternative weekly
in the Big Apple. In it she outlined
the difficulties of being a young, sin-
gle woman in New York and the
foibles of dating and sex in the latter
minutes of the 20th century. It was
graphic, though Sohn herself objects
to that adjective.
"I don't like the word 'graphic,"'
she complains. "I guess I feel the
way I write about sex is so humor-
ous that to call it graphic misses the
humorous side. It was explicit —
but only so far as that had some
comic value."
Six months into the column,
Simon & Schuster came through
with a book contract that resulted in
Run Catch Kiss. Now, Sohn is field-
ing feelers from Hollywood and has
a great new job at the New York Post
— writing a column about her non-
sexual experiences in New York City.
Sohn's protagonist cum alter ego
in Run Catch Kiss is Ariel Steiner, an

RES IAL , RANT

WAYNE STATE
UNWERSITY

Hilberry Theatre ,44

presents

byWiffiamSiukespeare

October 15 - December 9

Tickets from $11 - $18

Group Discounts Available

TICKETS (313) 577-2972

www.theatre.wayne.edu

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Detroit Jewish News

87