In late fall of 1999, I wrote a short story, \”Summertime,\” which I eventually included in my collection, \”Assumption and Other Stories\” (Bilingual Press, 2003). When the book reviews started coming in, most noted that particular story\’s unsettling premise.
It\’s official. American Jews are now the People of the Book Festival.
Nowadays, literature in general — and Jewish literature in particular — have become much more public entertainments.
Until recently, the word Drohobycz (pronounced "Dro-ho-bit-ch") sounded to most American readers like an exotic Eastern European tongue twister.
Dara Horn wrote an exuberant scene in her stunning debut novel, \”In the Image,\” upon returning to her dreary garret flat during a year abroad in 1999. \”I\’d been to this dismal British market in which an entire aisle was devoted to butter and fats,\” the ebullient Horn, 25, said animatedly. \”I recall a product called \’beef drippings.\’ The produce was wilting. All the milk was expired yesterday. I was very homesick.\”
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