The Jewish "boom" in American writing in the 60's was ignited by Bellow, Roth, and Malamud—reeled off in that order as if they were a firm of Jewish accountants. Soon there were so many American Jewish writers, enjoying so much critical praise, that Truman Capote complained about the "Jewish mafia in American letters," while John Updike (than whom no novelist more goyishe) wrote three short-story cycles in which he pretended to be a Jewish writer. The roots of American Jewish literature go much further back, though. The avot and imahot of American Jewish writing should not be forgotten. And some should even be reread.
I came to the project of "Retrieving American Jewish Fiction" out of the belief that literary critics, as I said some time ago, might "perform a more essential service to readers if they rescued books that do not deserve to be forgotten." The latest bestsellers, the hot titles on everyone's lips, need no push. Good books, however, are always a rarity.
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