Unfortunately we do not have a summary for this item at the moment

Kaplan brings to O My America! a large-minded, capacious intelligence, a vitality and a brilliant sense of irony She knows things the way George Eliot knows things and exhibits an astonishing power of rendering a whole society with virtuosity, energy, and explosive satire. I am grateful to her for so much joy, so much brilliance, so much ingenuity! Johanna Kaplan is an original.

A remarkable first novel. . . . In unfolding the intricate and disorderly saga of Ezra Slavin, Johanna Kaplan has brought rare intelligence and satiric virtuosity to that overworked fictional subject, the American children of immigrant Jews. . . . Miss Kaplan has grasped the slippery and difficult nature of this man with such flawless authority that we
need no prototypes to understand him.

A novel to savor and think about, particularly the memorable memorial service with its unexpected speaker. A fitting, unemotional end. Whatever it is that the author has given to Ezra, it works brilliantly. A shrewd and generous novel. It brings to life a family, a culture, and several generations, but most of all it brings to life an American mensch.