The subject of Holocaust fiction /

Budick (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) presents new readings of significant well-known but under-studied Holocaust fiction. Premising her discussion on psychoanalytic theory, the author examines the national, ethnic, and religious positions of characters in and authors and readers of this fiction. She examines work by American novelists Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Aryeh Lev Stollman, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, Art Spiegelman, Dara Horn, Shalom Auslander, and William Styron (all but Styron Jewish); Israelis Aharon Appelfeld and David Grossman; Germans Bernhard Schlink and W. G. Sebald; and South African J. M. Coetzee. Budick's interest is in "the subjectivity that frames any writer's or reader's view of any subject," in this case the Holocaust, and in how writers approach and readers respond to this difficult topic. Among the fascinating themes Budick explores is the recurrent appearance of the inheritance of Anne Frank and Bruno Schulz. Well versed in psychoanalytic theory and Holocaust literary criticism, Budick offers cogent intertextual comparisons--such as the evocation of Bruno Schulz in texts by Jewish writers whose dominant theme is "complicated" or "incomplete" mourning. This is an important contribution to literary studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --S. Lillian Kremer, emerita, Kansas State University