expulsion of that non-Jewish population,nin the name of Jewish “purity.”nIn LitvinofFs view, in fact, there isnonly one region in the entire worldnwhere the Jews have actually been ablento attain peace and almost total fulfillment:nin America. LitvinofF rightlynemphasizes that Jewish upward mobilitynand the ease of Jewish merging intonthe mainstream of American life wasnfacilitated most by two facts not of thenJews but of the United States: first, thenConstitution, which explicitly forbadenofficial state discrimination on the basisnof religion, and second, the fact that innAmerica the Jews found a society thatnwas already made up of a great varietynof different groups, a polyglot societynwhere the issue of “national purity,” ifnnot absent, was greatly defused (at leastnas far as the white population wasnconcerned). The result of all thesenfactors has been that the Jewish experiencenin America has been the happiestnJewish experience of any society onnearth.nAnd yet . . . there has recentlynemerged a new paradox. It is only innAmerica in the post-Holocaust periodnthat anti-Semitism has developed fromna base of true populist mythology—nfound in the black community. Inn1988 we witnessed Louis Farrakhannbeing invited by black college studentsnthroughout the country to come tontheir campuses to deliver his anti-nJewish diatribes (including the chargenthat evil Jewish businessmen were behindnthe drug problem in the blackncommunity). And in 1988 we alsonwitnessed the incredible spectacle of annassistant to the black mayor of Chicagonpublicly accusing Jewish doctors ofninjecting AIDS into black babies: anreturn to the paranoid fantasies of then14th century. Blacks, who have longnserved as scapegoats in American society,nseem to have found a scapegoat ofntheir own. I suspect that the sad storynso well told by Barnet Litvinoff is notnquite finished.nArthur M. Eckstein is professor ofnhistory at the University of Maryland.n32/CHRONICLESnBad Georgienby Brendan GalvinnUnderstanding George Garrettnby RH.W. DillardnColumbia: University ofnSouth Carolina Press; 230 pp.,n$ J 9.95 (cloth), $9.95 (paper)nThe facts of Ceorge Garrett’s literaryncareer are laid out in thenbibliography here: his 24 books includennovels, plays, and collections of poemsnand short stories. In addition he hasnserved as editor of 17 other books —ninterviews with contemporary writers,nliterary criticism, books on film scripts.nHe has also written a biography of thennovelist James Jones; a book-length criticalnstudy of the novelist Mary LeenSettle; screenplays; essays on WilliamnFaulkner, James Gould Cozzens, JohnnCheever, daily life in Elizabethan England,nWSP humor, writers as teachers,nand on and on. The amount andnthe range are breathtaking, and so is thenquality. One is tempted to imaginenGarrett—on his way to deliver one ofnhis controversial lectures or an inspirednreading from his work—seated in annairplane with a pen in each hand,nwriting on the two nearest folding trays.nNow comes R.H.W. Dillard, himselfna novelist, poet, screenwriter, and criticnof considerable accomplishment, to assessnGarrett’s oeuvre in UnderstandingnGeorge Garrett. This is the first ofnwhat will doubtless be many booklengthnstudies of Garrett. That manynlesser contemporaries have so far receivednfar more attention than thenauthor of Death of the Fox and ThenSuccession is not surprising, given thatnGarrett has consistently ignored literarynfashion and written what he wantednrather than what the pop audiencencraved. He chose early on to be, “If Incould, like Mr. Faulkner, The CatnWho Walks Alone “nMr. Dillard is the right person tonexplain and evaluate Garrett’s prodigiousnachievement. He is familiar withnthe multiple versions of Garrett’s fictionalnworks and how they mirror eachnother structurally, thematically, andnimagistically. He is also grounded innthe Old and New Testaments and innChristian symbolism, which is crucialnto any reading of Garrett. And hisnfamiliarity with the work of contempo­nnnrary meta-fictionists renders him capablenof untangling the intricate structuresnGarrett frequently employs toninvolve the reader, especially in suchnnovels as The Succession and PoisonnPen, where one is not permitted to be anpassive listener, but must help createnreality and meaning.nMr. Dillard begins with an overviewnof Garrett’s career to date, notingnalong the way that in “all of his worknhe has maintained a commitment tonthe creation and rendering of peoplenand their problems as ‘different’ andnindividuated, as humanly and spirituallynrather than sociologically or politicallynrelevant.” There next follows annanalysis of Garrett’s first novel. ThenFinished Man, whose backdrop isnSouthern politics, and which details thenmoral struggles of characters representingnold values and new, always in thenfallen world that Garrett insists we livenin.nChapter three discusses the secondnnovel, Which Ones Are the Enemy?,nand relates the plot and characters tonearlier stories Garrett wrote about militarynservice in postwar Europe. Thensetting is the Free Territory of Triestenin the early 1950’s, and the protagonistnJohn Riche, a professional soldier whonby choice inhabits a spiritual wastelandnin which he tries to remain uninvolvednwith other people. Through his relationshipnwith Angela, a B-girl whosenlife has been ravaged by the war, Richenlearns to break out of the cell ofnhimself, only to lose Angela to suicide.nIn the end he has learned to empathizenwith others and to articulate his ownnexperience as a step toward his redemption.nDo, Lord, Remember Me, Garrett’snnext novel, has had a curious publishingnhistory, and according to Dillardndeserves to be reprinted in its entirety,nnot in the way it was originally broughtnout. Under the pressures of publishingneconomics, fully three-fourths of thenmanuscript was cut, reducing the novelnfrom a Chaucerian panorama of smalltownnSouthern life to a neater talenabout Big Red Smalley, a travelingnevangelist, and his followers. Onenhopes that the publisher who reprints itn(or, really, publishes it for the firstntime) will also collect Garrett’s miscellaneousnessays, which would make provocativenreading.nFrom Southern politics to army lifen