Customer Reviews

Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
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I just finished Lost Tribe. I loved it. Without a doubt the best collection of short stories I have ever read. As a writer (still very small time) I found the book inspiring; I would someday like to achieve the quality of writing I found in LT.

The material in this collection is fabulous but not all original. I forked out some hard-earned bucks because I thought I was getting new fiction on the cutting edge by authors that I had read and admired and found that this book offered a lot of warmed up leftovers. Most of the big names in this collection gave the author rights to reprint material from their previously published books, books that were several years old. I think the book was marketed in a misleading way.

"Lost Tribe" is one of my favorite books of short stories. I couldn't put it down and look forward to reading other material by these authors. I also like the personal touch of each author's comments at the end of his/her piece. Nicely organized.

I do a lot of traveling and having a book of short stories is ideal for the plane. There's generally enough time to get through at least one with a sense of completion and this great assembly was so engaging, I kept hoping that the flights would last longer so I could move on to another story.

This book gives me hope for Jewish writing. The selection of stories is surprising and subtle, and together they add up to a portrait of modern Jewish life that's completely different from what one gathers from fretting Jewish newspapers and anxious studies about "intermarriage." But I don't just recommend Lost Tribe as a sociological corrective -- it's a brilliant work of editing, the themes of story responded to or carried forward by the next. I have my favorites, but I won't mention them -- get this book, read it with friends, and discuss.

This is a witty, sardonic, engrossing, and very funny collection of stories and I highly recommend it. The voices of these writers are young, fresh, and smart. Plus, it's a great book to read on the subway.

This book, for me, was about finding a connection. These writers spoke to so many issues that I have with my own Judaism that my parents and grandparents don't have, or aren't comfortable discussing, such as dealing with the over-exposure of the Holocaust, being Jewish in a secular world and LIKING IT, and being Jewish in a world in which Israel has always existed in your life time.

These are not stories about being Jewish and being a victim, these are stories about people who happen to be Jewish and how that happens to affect their lives - or not.