Allegra Goodman

Ranen Omer-Sherman (University of Louisville)
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Allegra Goodman has been rightly hailed as one of her generation’s most astute observers of Jewish mores and her richly satirical chronicles of the varieties of Jewish family life and society have often been compared to the acerbic social commentary of the great Victorian novelists. Without writing directly about the Holocaust, the alienation, religious conflicts, and displacements at the heart of her characters’ fictional universes are often indelibly shadowed by its pervasiveness. Goodman’s third book and first novel,

Kaaterskill Falls

, a 1998 National Book Award Finalist, offers rich psychological portraits of how both individuals and community endure displacements and losses due to Holocaust trauma, even when far removed from the atrocity. Goodman’s two short story collections…

494 words

Citation: Omer-Sherman, Ranen. "Allegra Goodman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 April 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5707, accessed 12 December 2024.]

5707 Allegra Goodman 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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