THE ELEPHANT AND MY JEWISH PROBLEM: Short Stories and Journals 1957-1987

by Hugh Nissenson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 9, 1988

Author of the wonderful novels My Own Ground (1976) and The Tree of Life, Nissenson gives us a 30-year retrospective here that shows his short stories largely in minor keys but that comes to really remarkable life in half a dozen extended journal entries. The 13 short stories come from the two earlier volumes A Pile of Stones (1965) and In the Reign of Peace (1972): sometimes touching, sometimes slight, the strongest are often those that move in the direction later taken by the historical-novelist Nissenson. Journal entries chronicle Nissenson's time in Israel during the Eichmann trial in 1961; his visits to a war-tom kibbutz in 1965-67, and again in 1974; and, in an astonishingly poignant and conscience-torn piece of writing, his coverage of the recent Klaus Barbie trial in France. Mixed work, but, at its strongest, breathtaking.

Pub Date: Nov. 9, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION