Contemporary Jewish Writing in Canada: An Anthology (review)

Abstract

Contemporary Jewish Writing in Canada: An Anthology, edited by Michael Greenstein. Jewish Writing in Contemporary World. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. 232 pp. $60.00. What is distinctive about contemporary writing? In Contemporary Jewish Writing in Canada: An Anthology, part of Jewish Writing in Contemporary World series edited by Sander L. Gilman, Michael Greenstein provides two answers. first answer appears in an introduction subtitled Sambation to Saskatchewan. Citing Mordecai Richler's description of Canada as of north, Greenstein adapts this Jewish version of many truisms that foreground Canadian inadequacy in relation to USA by asserting, Jewish writing in Canada is doubly ghettoized and regionalized between Montreal and prairies. Montreal dominates; cross looming over Mount Royal contrasts with the welcoming words of Emma Lazarus on Statue of Liberty. In a nine-part introduction, five parts are devoted to writing produced in Montreal: first its Yiddish sources; then work of A. M. Klein, the father of literature; followed by Klein's relationship to Montrealers Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen; Montreal's other major Jewish Mordecai Richler, writer who, until recent international success of Anne Michaels's Fugitive Pieces, is likely writer best known outside Canada; and finally French connections. Greenstein's geographical introduction then leaps over Ontario to Winnipeg and work of Jack Ludwig, Miriam Waddington, and Adele Wiseman, continuing its westward trek in next subheading, West of Winnipeg: Eli Mandel and Henry Kreisel. Only last two subheadings, Ontario's Outsiders and The Drift of New Voices, allow for possibility of other stories, something Greenstein does acknowledge: there are a number of distinctive voices during course of twentieth century who find mythologies outside of national boundaries. These distinctive voices challenge introduction's reliance upon two well-worn generalizations about Canadian writing. first is myth that Canada has no mythology, a view expressed by Sacvan Bercovitch: Canada's status as a colonial country without a mythology in contrast to 'America' with its indigenous, imperialist sense of identity. second adapts Northrop Frye's garrison mentality metaphor. Admitting that a garrison is not a ghetto, Greenstein appears reluctant to abandon metaphor completely even though many critics of Canadian writing have done so: Canadian-Jewish writing internalizes ghetto-garrison mentality as each writer seeks a means of escaping ghetto while adhering to its traditions. Obviously series of which Contemporary Jewish Writing in Canada is a part requires that editor offer his readers a pithy statement that sums up his subject, even if thesis seems both too grand-does each writer really seek a means of escaping ghetto?-and also not specific enough. Surely such generalizations about escaping ghetto/adhering to traditions might also apply to other countries' contemporary Jewish writing. In contrast to grand narrative of his introduction, in which A. M. Klein remains source and mouth of Jewish writing in Canada, seventeen writers Greenstein includes in anthology represent more than tributaries of A. M. Klein, and in that sense, offer a different story about literature, which is less coherent, and more interesting. Although male authors dominate discussion in introduction, anthology includes writing by nine men and eight women. Greenstein offers no explanation for his editorial choices. …