This work has already been awarded the 2005 Judaica Reference and Bibliography Awards prize from the Research and Special Libraries Division of the Association of Jewish Libraries and one can do no better than quote their accolade for the book. “This book aids collection development and reader advisory services ranging from public, synagogue, community center, and school libraries to academic and research institutions”. The author, librarian at Monmouth Reform Temple Library in Tinton Falls, New Jersey; programme coordinator at Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative in Freehold, New Jersey; has worked in public, academic, school, and special libraries for over thirty years. She is also a member of the Judaica Librarianship editorial board and had very specific purposes in producing Jewish American Literature.
One is aware that many of the greatest twentieth century American novelists were and are Jewish, but this reference work does not set out to describe or even analyse their work. Instead, Ms Reisner focuses on “Jewish American authors whose writing illuminates and reflects the Jewish experience, whether that experience is specifically Jewish American or just Jewish”. The authors selected were taken from those names that had appeared on award lists, mainly the ALA Notable Books List and “expanded by this author's judgment”. Ms Reisner is greatly influenced by book awards and those titles discussed which have won such prizes are indicated with a rosette. Her publisher shares this liking for such symbols, for each chapter is delineated on the recto page by an appropriate symbol, e.g. the section of Holocaust fiction and memoirs is indicated by a barbed wire fence. This may seem fanciful, but the arrangement of the book is so complex that the reader needs every assistance in finding her or his way around. After an initial chapter introducing the reader to techniques for building and maintaining a collection of Jewish American literature, there are seven chapters taking across the range of imaginative literature from Mysteries and Thrillers through Stories of Love and Romance to Biography and Autobiography. Each of these sections has its own introduction, a description of the subject's scope and appeal to the reader and an annotated list of the books selected by Ms Reisner. The most significant section, that on Literary Fiction, is split up into anthologies, classics, those works significant for their concentration on characterisation, those in which the story is the most important feature, those with language as the primary appeal, and ditto for setting (“time and place”). Each title has a brief synopsis, a note of its themes and suggested related titles (“readers who enjoyed … may also enjoy … ”).
The book is in a series which has already dealt with science fiction, teen fiction, Christian fiction and others. They will be of interest to librarians responsible for imaginative fiction in these genres.
