Children of Job: American Second Generation Witnesses to the Holocaust »

Focusing on the novels and films of daughters and sons of Holocaust survivors, this book sheds light on the relationship between the Holocaust and contemporary Jewish identity. It is the first systematic analysis of a body of work that introduces a new generation of Jewish writers and filmmakers, as well as revealing how the survivor's legacy is shaping - and being shaped by - the second generation. Carefully studying the work of these contemporary children of Job, Berger demonstrates how the offspring, like the survivors themselves, represent a variety of orientation to Judaism, have significant theological differences, and share the legacy of the Shoah. Berger clearly shows that members of the second generation participate fully in both the American and Jewish dimensions of their identity and articulates distinctive second-generation theological and psychosocial themes.

Library Journal

Berger, Raddock Eminent Scholar chair of Holocaust studies and director of Judaic studies at Florida State University, examines some important novels, short stories, and films created by the children of Holocaust survivors. He sets the stage by briefly discussing such groundbreaking nonfiction works as Helen Epstein's Children of the Holocaust (LJ 5/15/79), which was one of the first books to consider the psyche of the second generation. Berger excels at exploring books that are not easy to categorize or pigeonhole, such as Art Spiegelman's Maus. Spiegelman represents a kind of paradigm for Berger. Although he was born after the Holocaust, the Holocaust memories of his father were so suffocatingly real that Spiegelman's art became a safety valve and a means for the son to survive. The heavy psychological burden of the Holocaust figures in all the works of the artists examined here. This scholarly book is recommended for academic and large public libraries with strong Jewish studies collections.Paul Kaplan, Lake Villa District Lib., Ill.