The Family Markowitz

Synopsis | Praise

Back Story

While many people read this book as a novel, I wrote it a series of short stories exploring three generations of a Jewish-American family.  As a collection, the stories create a family portrait from multiple perspectives.  I wrote most of these stories while living in California in my mid-twenties.  Bob Gottlieb was then the editor of The New Yorker, and he was tremendously supportive of this project and published many of the Markowitz tales.   I benefited from the legendary proof readers and fact checkers at the magazine, and the insight of my editors Dan Menaker and Roger Angel.  When this book was published in October,1996, Michiko Kakutani called it “enchanting.”  I kept her review on the night table next to my bed for weeks!