ABSTRACT
The Jewish presence in French literature has a diverse and distinguished history, but the same cannot be said for Yiddish. The critical reception of Wiesel and Schwarz-Bart in the late 1950s could easily be the subject of a whole chapter. The point that seems most relevant here is that both of these remarkable books were seen more as testimonies than as works of literature, and despite the acclaim and the prize, they earned more respect than literary recognition. There can hardly be a more spectacular example of French assimilationism than the career of Romain Gary. His novel was not well received by the critics, but that was only to be expected. The author's public image as a faithful Gaullist and a wealthy international celebrity made his novels unworthy of serious attention by the right-thinking, left-leaning establishment of Saint-Germain -des-Pres. But there is little doubt that Gengis Cohn was read with attention by a gifted teenager called Patrick Modiano.
