Sunday Jews

Hortense Calisher has been hailed as stand[ing] vividly with Cather and Fitzgerald (Cynthia Ozick). In this her latest and most lauded novel she explores a family united in blood yet divided by ideas. Son Charles hopes to be a Supreme Court justice; family beauty Nell has children by different lovers; art expert Erika has a nose job; and artist Zach has two wives. Their mother infamous in Israel born of a well-to-do Boston background but no longer rich is bound to a past that never quite dies. The buried history of this extraordinary--and very American--family comes to light unexpectedly when grandson Bert brings home as a wife the woman who years ago joined the family circle then mysteriously disappeared. <p/>Told with wit and deep acuity <em>Sunday Jews</em> is a tour de force from a writer whose fiction has justly been compared with that of Eudora Welty and Henry James and whose ability to delineate our lives is unparalleled.<br>