Justice. - book reviews

Judaism, Wntr, 1997 by Lawrence W. Raphael

Presented in this small segment of the world of popular detective fiction is a vast array of characters, plots, subplots and circumstances that give us ourselves - contemporary American Jews. As Jews have felt increasingly secure and confident in American society, so has the type of Jewish character changed. The take-it-for granted Jewish character is now a growing part of this genre of popular literature.

This genre owes much to the non-Jewish detectives popular in the larger arena of this fiction. Crime solvers Len Schwartz, Abe Lieberman, Harvey Blissberg, Peter Decker, Dov Taylor, and others are primarily molded and able to make it in popular literature because of the tough guy image of Spenser in Robert Parker's novels. Authors Nina Fischman, Rochelle Krich, Shelley Singer, and Julie Smith owe a greater debt to Sue Grafton's alphabet-related investigator Kinsey Millhourne and Sara Paretsky's heroine V. I. Warshavsky.

Worth noting is the rarity of Israel in almost all of American Jewish detective fiction, despite the masterful writings of the Israeli author Batya Gur - three superb novels have been translated into English, beginning with The Literary Murder - and the American born Robert Rosenberg who moved to Israel more than 20 years ago. The Israeli detective novels are a recent phenomenon in a country that saw its greatest threat from external, not internal crime. It will be interesting to see whether the peace process will increase the popularity of Israeli detective fiction.

These Jewish heroes typically exemplify Jewish "civil" religion. With the exception of the few affirming Jewish detectives mentioned earlier, the rest are not interested in any aspect of their Jewish religious life, any particular belief or religion. Their characters are caught up in an American way of life that is more inclusive of freedom, democracy, and individualism than it is of covenant, community, and religious responsibility.

Almost 40 years ago Leslie Fiedler wrote about the how, when and the why of the appearance of the Jewish hero in American fiction (Midstream, 1958). Are we finding any Jewish heroes here? Detective fiction offers us modern models who don't kid themselves that they can restore order to an ungovernable universe. These detectives are the representatives of the third generation of American Jews. Not very many of them are interested in returning to tradition (orthodox or liberal), not very many of them are interested in any demonstration of their religious or ethnic identity, but they are seeking to solve the problems that they are dealt and to resolve conflict and ambiguity. The Jewish ones agonize over this task a little bit more than the others. Perhaps we can find some hope, as Falk might, in that.

LAWRENCE W. RAPHAEL, long a student of Judaism and popular culture, is the Director of the Department of Adult Jewish Growth, Union of American Hebrew Congregations.