Growing up in the 60s my Jewish identity was bracketed by The Source Exodus Portnoy's Complaint The Chosen
I've filled that narrative out a bit since but those were my foundation stones. So here is my more rounded out list. I'll add another vote for As A Driven Leaf ... also Tanakh, preferably the Artscroll for its index and appendices .. I notice that only one other person mentioned the Bible, but only the five books of Torah ... but I'd want it all Portnoy's Complaint, because it covers all the bases of the seamy underbelly of the Jewish-American experience The Chosen, Potok, because after Portnoy you will want to believe in something good about being a Jew... Exodus, Uris, the founding narrative of the State of Israel, pretty much everything I know about those times If you gave me a little more room on the bookshelf, I'd want to add, in no particular order: A Tale of Love and Darkness, Amos Oz To Pray As a Jew, Donin Home to Stay, Daniel Gordis Living a Jewish Life, Diamant/Cooper Jews Without Money, Gold A Bintel Brief, The Daily Forward The Source, Michener A Pigeon and A Boy, Shalev Past Continuous, Shabtai -- Lee Jaffe, UC Santa Cruz --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: hasaf...@osu.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
