Positive Jewish American Literature

Since it was not my group’s turn to write a paper this week, I decided to reflect on the book on my blog. I also wanted to write this before class today so I first examine my own thoughts on Jewish American Literature and then see how these views fit into our larger class setting. Therefore, expect another post in the next few days reflecting back over our class discussion on this topic!

At first, I was not wholeheartedly impressed with our novel this week, Confessions of a Closet Catholic by Sarah Darer Littman. I contribute this mainly to my Catholic upbringing and the naive almost mocking portrayal of Catholics in this book. I was also upset because it mainly focused on the sinful aspects of living a religious life. This made the tone of the book quite depressing and negative. And as much as I appreciate the flowery ending with Justine finally meeting a boy who likes her and discovering her Kosher desires, it seems a little superficial. This ending just did not appear very realistic to me! In addition, Confessions of a Closet Catholic did not seem like a very positive representation of the Jewish American culture for young readers. However, all these negative connotations were before I read the articles that accompany this book for class.

The article Judging Judaica by Linda R. Silver brought up a very interesting point about what positive Jewish American literature looks like. The article states “if Jewish questions underlie or animate the theme and the author seeks to answer them in a Jewish context, then the book has a positive Jewish content and focus” (Silver 44). Therefore, it is more important to be authentic about the lifestyle of the culture, than whether this lifestyle is seen as positive or negative. This idea has helped me better understand our novel and see how it can in fact be seen as a positive example of this culture. Just because the actions within the book are negative or at times depressing, does not mean the book is a negative or bad representation of Jewish American literature.

With this in mind, I am still struggling a little with fully appreciating this book. I guess I will see what the rest of my Children’s Literature classmates have to say before delving any farther into this discussion. Be back soon!