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THE GRAND DRAGON by Irma Kurtz

THE GRAND DRAGON

By

Pub Date: Feb. 20th, 1978
Publisher: Dutton

The nameless narrator-heroine of this thin, obvious sermonette is a hip young Jewish journalist who's been worried lately about reestablishing contact with her authentic self. Therefore, she has decided to take twice-yearly trips from her London base back to the States, to visit her parents in New Jersey; her dentist father is a fearful, wary Jew, waiting for another Holocaust to come along and take care of American Jews it missed the first time around. Her father's anxiety gives the journalist an idea for a story--the Ku Klux Klan--so she travels down to Natchez, Miss., to interview the Grand Dragon. Like her, the Grand Dragon remains nameless, but he's nice, blond, intelligent, attractive, and, to her surprise, she's willing to have a one-night relationship with him. Though it's a struggle, she keeps the fact of her Jewishness a secret. Next day, at a Klan rally, anti-Semitic spew from the mouth of the Grand Dragon riles up our heroine's guilt and rage. Yelling ""I'm a Jew!"" she stumbles from the rally, having rediscovered her roots. One-dimensional characters, one-note sociology--hardly more than a padded anecdote with a message.