* ' *

et. r

3e0c.

Jewish fiction writing is alive and well.

Complete Trays

Like Rachel, Sohn also once con-
sidered a career in the rabbinate. As
a teen, Jewish youth group "was a
very big part of my social life," she
said. When she entered Brown
University, Sohn thought she either
wanted to be a rabbi or an actress,
leading her to attend a recruitment
weekend at the Reform movement's
Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion.
However, she gradually gravitated
more toward theater and then stum-
bled upon writing while attempting
to jump-start a career on the stage.
Sohn is a bit cagey about her cur-
rent Jewish involvement. "I almost
feel more private about that than
talking about sex," she said, laugh-
ing. Later in the conversation she
adds that she is "still searching," but
notes that she is "moving away from
God-centered Judaism to secular
Judaism."
Sohn raised eyebrows at her NFTY
reunion for her sex writing, and if
My Old Man and a recent New York
Times Book Review roundup she
wrote about sex manuals is any indi-

cation, she is hardly becoming a
prude.
Nonetheless, she seems to be set-
tling down a little. Now a columnist
for New York magazine, Sohn has
broadened her repertoire to include
other aspects of romantic relation-
ships as well as the bedroom.
Last year she married artist
Charles Miller, who specializes in
paintings of pre-World War II
Jewish prizefighters. And, despite her
protagonist's distaste for the yuppie
mothers taking over her corner of
Brooklyn, Sohn says pregnancy and
motherhood may be in the not-so-
distant future.
"I'd love to have children," she
says, smiling a bit shyly.
After all that writing about the
birds and the bees, we can assume
she knows how it's done. Ili

great and terrible, they never thought
they were capable of doing."
"There were many heroes during
World War II who never got a medal or
accolades." The woman Mia is based on
is one of them. "Without her," he
explains, "many other people might not
be here."
At the beginning of his Army tenure,
he was very disturbed when many of his
fellow soldiers — most of who never
met Jews before — assumed that Jews
were not fighters. Zacharius, who grew
up in Borough Park, Brooklyn, says that
even as a kid he always fought back and
gained a street reputation as a prizefight-
er, which has continued in his business
career. These days, he admits that he's
known to be a litigious publisher.
He was also upset in the Army to see
how black and white soldiers were large-
ly segregated. That, in part, inspired him
as a publisher to enter the African-
American marketplace. He started the
first line of black romance novels.
Kensington has many imprints and
publishes romance fiction as well as gen-
eral fiction and nonfiction titles includ-
ing biographies and self-help.
Zacharius says that rather than pub-
lishing his novel through his own com-
pany, he enlisted a literary agent who
sold the book to a division of Simon
and Schuster. "I wanted the book to

stand on its own merit," the first-time
author notes, adding that this experience
has given him a new appreciation of
writers.
Zacharius' spacious office is filled with
art of the Southwest, Eskimo sculpture
and many objects with the stripes or
shape of a zebra — the name of one of
the publishing companies he started —
and a piano keyboard. Zacharius started
playing piano in his 70s. Not one to let
his age define him, he also learned to
play tennis at age 45 — and still plays
— and learned to jump horses at 47
and to play squash at 65. A resident of
the Upper East Side of Manhattan, he's
a member of Central Synagogue.
Zacharius has been back to Paris
many times. Reflecting on the 60th
anniversary of the liberation of the city,
he says, "It leaves a really deep impres-
sion on you. That was the last, really
patriotic war — when everybody was
involved, even kids collecting bottle tops
to convert to ammunition — the last
war that seemed to have some meaning."
He pauses, and in a somber voice,
adds, "I think very much of the people
in Iraq who are dying." ❑

from $6.25/person*

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Amy Sohn speaks, as part of a
Young Writer's Hour also featur-
ing Adam Langer (Crossing
California), 7 p.m. Monday, Nov.
8, at the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield.

Walter Zacharius speaks 1 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 9, at the Jewish
Community Center in Oak Park.

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