Customer Reviews

Total Immersion

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This is the second book I have read by Allegra Goodman. Last year I read her beautiful novel "Kaaterskill Falls" which was a deserving National book Award finalist. In that work, which was a much more serious one than this earlier book, she depicted in beautiful detail the struggles within a small Jewish religious community. This has sent me back to her earlier books. "Total Immersion" is her first, a collection of short stories which Ms. Goodman published at the age of 21. To put it quite simply, I am just astounded at the talent and insight into a broad range of human types and settings which this writer has shown at the tender age of 21! She writes with total maturity and self-assurance. In these stories she again explores the world of small (mostly Jewish) communities in a variety of settings, mainly in Hawaii of all places! The stories are light in touch and always a pleasure to read. The characters and conflicts are well drawn and all balloons of pretension are mercilessly punctured by the author's delightful wit. Ms. Goodman has also included an extremely handy glossary at the back of her book with all the Jewish and Hawaiian terms used in her stories. Now I can't wait to read "The Family Markowitz" (her next collection) and I am eager to see what she will produce to follow the wonderful "Kaaterskill Falls".

I loved Goodman's Kaaterskill Falls, which I thought was truly magical. I was not as pleased with this book. I felt that the stories were disjointed and the characters not particularly well-developed. I was hard pressed to hear the beautiful voice Goodman fashioned for herself in her later works.

Did she really write these stories at 21? I'm seething with envy. Allegra Goodman is everything the back cover promised - gifted, brilliant, swift to get to the truth of things. She's also full of gentle irony and very, very perceptive. I must, however, say that the fact that the stories in the book deal with almost exclusively Jewish characters may somewhat hinder its being enjoyed by readers unfamiliar with that religion and background. But, all in all, it is a wonderful collection of stories both intelligent and tremendously funny.