Minyan: Ten Interwoven Stories

by John J. Clayton

Overview

Ten engaging interwoven stories about the lives of people who meet weekly at a synagogue to pray. Each story is told from the point of view of a different character and deals with issues like narcissism and love, brokenness and repair. John J. Clayton is an award-winning author and a professor of literature and fiction. Minyan is his ninth work of fiction.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940156805938
Publisher:	Paragon House Publishers
Publication date:	08/18/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	446 KB

About the Author

JOHN J. CLAYTON has taught modern literature and fiction writing as professor and then Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, since 1969 and has taught as Visiting Professor at Mt. Holyoke College and Hampshire College. He has long been mining the fusion, the intersection, of psychology and spirituality.

Minyan is his fourth collection of short stories. He is author of five novels, most recent Taking Care of Charley. Mitzvah Man, his fourth novel, received the Bronze Award from the Book of the Year Awards in Literary Adult Fiction, and Kuperman’s Fire, his third novel, about criminal evil, Jewish heritage, and the miracle of survival, was made into a Blackstone Audiobook. He has written two books of literary criticism: Saul Bellow: In Defense of Man and Gestures of Healing, a psychological study of the modern novel.

Clayton’s stories have appeared in AGNI, Virginia Quarterly Review, TriQuarterly, Sewanee Review, a dozen times in Commentary; in Kerem, Notre Dame Review, Missouri Review and The Journal. His stories have won prizes in O.Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. His collection Radiance, won the Ohio State University award in short fiction and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. “The Man Who Could See Radiance” was read at Symphony Space in New York and has been aired often on NPR since fall, 2001, as part of the Selected Shorts series. It has been included in the audio anthology, Getting There From Here: Best of Selected Shorts.

Editorial Reviews

"If I were asked whether there is one single book I would recommend to anyone interested in learning about the world of contemporary American Jews, I would unhesitatingly recommend John J. Clayton's Minyan.

Richard L. Rubenstein

"In this sparkling collection of ten stories, John Clayton has opened a clear-eyed, intimate window into the souls and lives of a small congregation of Jews in Boston, alive to the beauty and messiness of everyday life. While reading these humane, touching stories, I felt as if I'd grown up in the company of this Minyan, knowing their hopes, joys, and disappointments my whole life. In this gift of stories, Clayton affirms my rabbi's old adage, 'Jews are really like everybody else.'"

James E. Young