A Hundred Acres of America: The Geography of Jewish American Literary History. Michael Hoberman

Abstract

The title of Michael Hoberman’s A Hundred Acres of America: The Geography of Jewish American Literary History is inspired by Seymour “the Swede” Levov, the protagonist of Philip Roth’s American Pastoral (1997), who, in that text, purchases “a hundred acres of America,” thus symbolizing a sense of belonging for himself and future generations. With this reference, Hoberman alludes to the sense of place—its presence, absence, meaning, and formative influence—that propels forward even as it roots the Jewish American literary imagination. Hoberman’s superb study extends from the 1850s to the new millennium. Considering the relationship of Jewish American writers to the land and geography they inhabit and shape (and that, in turn, shapes their identities), Hoberman navigates a delicate triangulation of Americanness, Jewishness, and Jewish Americanness. The richness of Hoberman’s work is partly a feature of its extensive chronology, which includes 150 years of literary history, and partly due to his...