The Family Markowitz

Synopsis | Back Story

Praise

“The author’s virtuosity turns not only complacent yentas, but everyone into treats. Her ‘touch’ reminds me of John Singer Sargent’s painting technique, the brush strokes seemingly casual yet sure, always the exact—and unlikely—equivalent of a shadow or reflected gleam.”
—Newsday

“These characters and the situations they find themselves in are so authentic and familiar, we respond to them as though they are family. They get under our skin, make us roll our eyes, get us snorting with laughter and recognition.”
—Boston Globe

“Goodman is brilliant at capturing the clutter of both interior and exterior life . . . These stories sound like no one else’s as she sharply appraises the shifts and quandaries of one variety of American Jewish life.”
—Los Angeles Times

“The Family Markowitz has great consistency and charm.”
—Claire Messud, The New York Times Book Review

“The Family Markowitz sparkles with life . . . with dazzling authority and copious amounts of wit and goodwill, Goodman tweaks the Markowitzes into life. she has a treasure in this fictional family. Let’s home she continues to mine it, because these are memorable characters—at times whiny and self-absorbed, at others goofy and endearing. In other words, they are bundles of contradictions, utterly human and familiar.”
—The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

“A highly skillful collection of stories . . . wonderful engrossing fiction. We’re lucky Allegra Goodman is young; we get to read her for years and years to come.”
—Elle

“Poignant and funny.”
—Time Out New York

“Goodman . . . leads a new generation of Jewish-American writers.”
—Harper’s Bazaar

“A bona fide wunderkind . . . She has a keen eye and an ear for folly and writes always with intelligence . . .”
—The Buffalo News

“Readers of Total Immersion knew that Allegra Goodman was a writer to reckon with. The Family Markowitz merely confirms this happy fact.”
—Hadassah Magazine

“Rich, complicated humor . . . Ms. Goodman is highly skilled in capturing the way, in small tugs and huge yanks, the Markowitzes pull on each other’s strings, creating a hopelessly tangled web full of love and misunderstandings.”
—Forward

“Goodman’s voice is fresh and distinctive as she limns a wry, funny, touching portrait of an American Jewish family in a brilliantly observed, lovingly rendered novel composed of interlocking stories.”
—Publishers Weekly

“With wit, panache, and genuine affection for her characters, Goodman . . . offers a saga of an archetypal Jewish-American family.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Elegant writing and affectionate insight into the intertwined personalities.”
—The Jerusalem Report

“Funny, challenging and insightful.”
—Booklist

“Goodman has mastered the art of melding pathos with humor in the best style of Jewish storytelling.”
—Library Journal

“Goodman fulfills the promise of her debut with The Family Markowitz, a smartly funny collection of interwoven stories . . . She succeeds with straightforward mastery of the basics. She is a storyteller in the classic Jewish tradition . . . writing with an assured grace that would make many older writers envious . . . Deeply thoughtful and accomplished . . .”
—Boston Phoenix

“I think I saw Rose Markowitz in line at Fairway.”
—Jewish World

“Exceptionally well-written: funny and wise and keenly observed . . . One of the most engaging, maddening and recognizable families to come along in years . . .  an enchanting book.”
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“The author's virtuosity turns not only complacent yentas, but everyone into treats.  Her 'touch' reminds me of John Singer Sargent's painting technique, the brush strokes seemingly casual yet sure, always the exact—and unlikely—equivalent of a shadow or reflected gleam.”
—Anna Shapiro, Newsday