Good Book: Father and the Angels, by William Manners

Technically this is a memoir of a man who grew up in Zanesville, Ohio, in a family headed by an orthodox rabbi. But even with the religious portions and overlay, it is one of the better, more-universal coming-of-age books I’ve read: lots of wisdom mixed with humor. It reminded me a little of Papa’s Wife by Thyra Ferre Bjorn, only masculine, of course. And as much as I liked Papa’s Wife, I liked Father and the Angels more.

Commentary magazine notes in its archive list that they had an article in April 1948 called “Books About Everyday Jews”, by George J. Becker, which includes this book. The article is available for a fee to subscribers. From the teaser information, I gather that Becker was celebrating that American writing was breaking free of old stereotypes. Certainly there is nothing stereotypical about this book.

I read the abridged version published by Scholastic in 1966. The full-length version was published in 1947 by E. P. Dutton & Co., New York.

This is one of my “I Wish Someone Would Put It Back In Print” titles.