Sehlemiels, Matehmakers, and Portnoy's Complaint

Isaac Bashevis Singer, "Gimpel the Fool" (Noonday Press, 1957). The short story that put Singer on the map via Bellow's translation, wherein the fool, the schlemiel, becomes the Holy Fool, the wise man.

Saul Bellow, Herzog (Viking Press, 1964). The great novel of the Jewish intellectual. A man at once filled with intellectual power, emotional confusion, and stylish wit. Grace Paley, Little Disturbances of Man (Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1959). A wonderful collection of short stories told through the humorous and often wise perspective of the female protagonist.

Ida Fink, The Journey (Farrer, Straus & Giroux, 1992) and A Scrap of Time (Pantheon Books, 1987). Two understated and subtle looks at the Holocaustyears from the perspective of a young girl—authentic and strong. Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint (Random House, 1969). The comic masterpiece of the late sixties which defined a hero and a generation. The Counter-life (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1986). A gripping tale about Jewish identity and its difficulties.

Bernard Malamud, The Magic Barrel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1958). A story about unexpected spiritual experience between two unlikely characters, a young rabbinical student and a Jewish matchmaker. The Assistant (Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1957). A close, hard, small novel focusing on a Jewish grocer, his gentile thief assistant, and the grocer's daughter, which looks at human relationships in a unique way.

Yehoshua Kenaz, The Way to the Cats (Steerforth Press, 1994). Avery modern novel about old age set in Israel, focusing in an unsentimental and realistic manner on an elderly woman protagonist and her coping with aging, betrayals, and friendship.