ABSTRACT
America, by the end of World War I, had become the greatest Jewish centre in the world, both in number and influence. Immigrants continued to stream in through to the mid-1920s, and so their concern initially was to establish themselves and to assimilate successfully and tidily into the new environment. A recognisable Jewish locale also marks Portnoy’s Complaint, which takes place in the recall of Portnoy on a psychoanalyst’s couch. The psychology of individuals and family relationships is successfully interwoven with conflict. There is a somewhat monotonous and unrelievedly gloomy atmosphere in novels that read at times very much as though they are trying to illustrate a thesis, rather than be carried away by the vitality of character and plot.
