BREAKTHROUGH: A Treasury of Contemporary American-Jewish Literature

An impressive collection of stories, poetry and non-fiction from major contemporary Jewish writers, this is prefaced by the guiding remark: ""Although we assume that each of the selections is an independent and satisfying work, our interest is not primarily evaluative. It is thematic and argumentative."" The introduction takes up the themes and conflicts: of the old country, fathers and sons, the sense of the past, dualities, the heart, transcendence...Contributors of stories: Philip Poth, Saul Bellow (from The Adventures of Augie March), Bernard Malamud, Herbert old, Norman Mailer (from The Naked and the Dead), Paul Goodman, Isaac Rosenfeld, Grace Paley, Ivan Gold, Wallace Markfield; of poetry: Karl Shapiro, Muriel Rukeyser, Howard Nemerov, Delmore Schwartz, Allen Grossman, Allen Ginsberg (Howl), Hyam Plutzik, David Ignatow, Irving Feldman, Harvey Shapiro; of non-fiction: Philip Pahv, Alfred Kazin, Isaac Rosenfeld, Shlomo Katz, Irving Howe, Norman Podhoretz, Lionel Trilling, Harold Rosenberg, Leslie Fiedler, Theodore Solotaroff (on Philip Roth), and Arthur A. Cohen. Solid, representational.