The Conversion of the Jews (Short Stories Series) [Hardcover]

Philip Roth (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Series: Creative Short Stories

Thirteen-year-old Ozzie's questioning of what he is taught in religious class leads to a tense confrontation with his rabbi.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Creative Education; First Edition edition (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886825067
• ISBN-13: 978-0886825065
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,287,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In the 1990s Philip Roth won America's four major literary awards in succession: the National Book Critics Circle Award for Patrimony (1991), the PEN/Faulkner Award for Operation Shylock (1993), the National Book Award for Sabbath's Theater (1995), and the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for American Pastoral (1997). He won the Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union for I Married a Communist (1998); in the same year he received the National Medal of Arts at the White House. Previously he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Counterlife (1986) and the National Book Award for his first book, Goodbye, Columbus (1959). In 2000 he published The Human Stain, concluding a trilogy that depicts the ideological ethos of postwar America. For The Human Stain Roth received his second PEN/Faulkner Award as well as Britain's W. H. Smith Award for the Best Book of the Year. In 2001 he received the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in Fiction, given every six years "for the entire work of the recipient." In 2005 The Plot Against America received the Society of American Historians Award for "the outstanding historical novel on an American theme for 2003--2004." In 2007 Roth received the PEN/Faulkner Award for Everyman.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real, yet surreal. My favorite pick out of hundreds., October 30, 1998

By 

Patricia D. Stroe (Glenwood, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Conversion of the Jews (Short Stories Series) (Hardcover)

I felt that this story illustrated creative thematic continuity. The plot is precisely orchestrated. The symbolism is clear and allegoric. Both Old and New Testament allusions flow between the lines. The theme is intense and unified. The setting is literal, yet transcends figurative meanings.

The narrator's point of view is dramatic. The theme is both illustrative and moving. The style is connotative of much deeper meanings. The diction is creatively suggestive. The characters are plausible and consistent.

I think this is a masterpiece! The conclusion is strong and symbolic. Throughout the story, Roth saturates and consistently reinforces his theme in a satire of religious hypocrisy. I give you ten stars for this one! **********

Patty Stroe

5.0 out of 5 stars Jewish Huck, April 11, 2010

By 

Darrell F. Musick (Berea, KY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Conversion of the Jews (Short Stories Series) (Hardcover)

Even the Chosen are not immune from the blessings of the trickster who reminds us that there are more things in heaven and earth than we dream of. Shalom!!

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the all time great short stories, May 6, 2008

By 

Francine D'Alessandro (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Conversion of the Jews (Short Stories Series) (Hardcover)

The Conversion of the Jews is one of the best short stories I have ever read. I'm not Jewish, so what a miracle to find Roth's Itzie confronting the rabbi in the same way I was confronting nuns with similarly confrontational questions - and at about the same age. (There wasn't any hitting involved, but parents were called.)

From a simply technical perspective, Roth keeps the energy of the story going ever higher (appropriately enough) until.... Well, you'll just have to read the story. I first ran across this story in a battered copy of `Best Short Stories of 1959' which had been abandoned at some summer house. I don't remember any other stories in the book.

Whether you are Itzie, `always with the questions,' or Blotnik, for whom things are either `Good for the Jews or Bad for the Jews,' there is one take-away message from `The Conversion of the Jews' we can all agree on: You should never hit anybody about God.