O My America!

A young woman tries find peace and meaning among the complicated relationships of her extended family. The largest character in her life is her father, a forceful, famous, charming, infuriating Jewish cultural figure. He is an emotional presence in several households, and she moves among them, interreacting with loves and lovers of several generations. The novel is touching and moving but also very funny. It's like a play: the characters talk a variety of languages: the grandparents' Yiddish-English, the parents' old-time Jewish socialist English, the young people's New York English of the 1970's. They all sound exactly right. I especially enjoyed revisiting the seventies, which in this version turn out to have been exactly the way I remember but even funnier.