April said that when she got healthy—if she did, she said, if—she wanted to have Julia’s body…-Harper’s Magazine

Claire Messud did not realize she was writing such a prescient novel. ‘This Strange Eventful History’ is a sort of generational family saga, but its consideration of occupation and diaspora seems particularly timely…The Forward

For one fan, his parents and 80,000 others, a blissful revelation — from one era to the next…The Forward

At dusk we walked up a path along the stream that stitches together Pano Potamia and Kato Potamia, two villages in the most fertile part of Naxos, the Greek island. While most of the other Cycladic islands are as dry as toast, Naxos is covered in verdant valleys and mountain villages, clusters of whitewashed houses nestled into a Bruegel-like landscape …. The New York Times

The poet and writer Delmore Schwartz, who at 25 published one of the most dazzling collections of stories ever written, “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities,” was born in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrants in 1913. A James Joyce obsessive (see his papers at Yale’s Beinecke Library for a look at his brilliant annotated “Finnegans Wake”), he had a remarkable and bitterly short life, dying alone in the Chelsea Hotel at 52 in a sort of cruel reversal of the immigrant son’s American Dream…. The Forward

Helen Schulman explains to Jennifer Gilmore the intersecting lives and shocking betrayals in her latest novel ‘Lucky Dogs’…The Forward

In A.M. Homes' novel 'The Unfolding,' the Jewish author imagines a life antithetical to her own…The Forward

Philip Roth. Love him or hate him. Me? I loved him. As is the case for many Jewish American novelists, his work informed mine in countless ways. Also, I worked in the twilight of the New York publishing era Roth came up in. Though I do not seem to be among my own generation of women writers who corresponded with him — some sitting vigil at his deathbed, washing the heirless author clean — I did have the thrill of meeting the author at several publishing events in Manhattan. …. The Forward

I was five when “Blood on the Tracks” was released (to mixed reviews) and the only Dylan I knew then, indeed the only Dylan I would hear before high school, was my father’s “Best of Dylan,” the singer-songwriter silhouetted against the blue cover, his wild Jewish hair shot with light, harmonica to his lips … The Forward

I’m moving again and my books are packed up and sealed in boxes.

Just two days ago I took all the Roth books down from my highest shelf: The first edition of “Portnoy’s Complaint,” the first book I gave to my boyfriend, now my husband, twenty years ago at the Shark Bar in Soho; “American Pastoral,” which I read in graduate school in upstate New York, freezing, and with such amazement I thought I would never be able to write again until it made me write again ….. The Forward

My mother worked. She stepped into a suit, fastened an ERA stickpin to the lapel, and carpooled downtown to the State Department in a wood-paneled station wagon. Sometimes she left the country. There were postcards with stamps marked with lions and flowers and foreign kings that arrived long after she’d come home … NY Magazine, The Cut

At the border of the town where I grew up there is a circle that straddles Maryland and the District of Columbia and is ringed by a band of churches. Catholic, Protestant, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist. All are represented here, I remember being told many times ….. The Forward

An origin story is the story of who we are. For the superhero the origin story—like any character’s backstory—explains how he came to his superhuman powers. Batman is avenging of his parent’s murder. Iron Man, once captured and forced to use his powers of weapon building for escape, now uses technical prowess and his money for good is a result of having once been forced to use it for evil. The list goes on and on … Dame

I first encountered Elena Ferrante’s fierce, singular voice in her second novel, “The Days of Abandonment,” an unrelenting exploration of a woman whose husband has left her. In her newest novel, “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” the third of her quartet of “Neapolitan novels,” we come up for air. …. The LA Times

When we decided to adopt, ceasing the fertility treatments and relinquishing our genetic link to our offspring, we thought the decision was altruistic. At the very least, we assumed there was an adoption system in place that works, and that we could move from the notional if we get a child—the gamble of science—to the unshakable when …. The Atlantic

After considerable heartbreak and drama, my spouse and I have finally adopted a child. We brought him home about two and a half months ago, his story also not without incident. This is our first child. Our first adoption. And most certainly our last, as neither my husband or myself could bear again—individually or together—what we went through to bring this child into our lives …… Psychology Today

I am finally going to meet the birth mother, at her request, at a mall in Paramus, N.J.

I have a lot of feelings about the meeting. I have had a lot of feelings for a long time now. After several years of trying to have a child, and after several more years of science trying on our behalf, my husband and I decided to adopt. Somehow we thought that once we let go of the genetic link, out of the ether, a child would appear …. The New York Times Opinionator

IT was on Sept. 29, the day the first bailout failed, and I was on the train from Carroll Gardens to the financial district — an area I normally hit only for Century 21 — for drugs. Not recreational drugs, vestiges of my waning youth, but the outrageously expensive fertility medications not covered by my insurance. (Thank you, national health care system.) I was setting out for the law office of an extraordinarily charitable woman who no longer needed her drugs and whose far more beneficent insurance plan covered them ….. The New York Times

One never knows why another human really does what he does. And as readers, we can’t ever really know why an author makes the decisions he does on the page. Authorial intent is somewhat sacred. All we can do as readers is speculate on the work as it sits, or sings, on the page …… The Forward

Few people know more about Broadway theater than Jack Viertel does. He comes at the form from all angles: He is the senior vice president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns and operates five Broadway theaters, and he’s the artistic director of the Encores! series at City Center. He’s been a theater critic, has worked on…The Forward

When listening to a new Bob Dylan album, is it possible to hear it in and of itself? Or are we destined to hear only Dylan against Dylan? And if so, how can anything new hold up against those first thrilling chords of “The Times They Are a-Changin’”? Or Dylan gone electric — the ecstatic, in-your-face start to “Blonde on Blonde”? Or the exquisite longing of “Blood on the Tracks?” Or the later Dylan, which I’m going to mark at 1997’s nearly perfect “Time Out of Mind,” ……. The Forward

I slept in the attic. I was put up there when I was 5 and my sister was born and she took over my room. The attic is a haven in a lot of ways — I am atop my family and can hear them moving below; I have a window seat and I can look down on the world, see the kids playing kick the can, riding their banana-seated bikes down the hill, ringing their bells, and I can watch the old people leaning into each other, walking hand in hand after dinner .……. Salon