From: The New Leader | Date: October 5, 1998| Author: | COPYRIGHT 1998 American Labor Conference on International Affairs. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Kaaterskill Falls By Allegra Goodman Dial. 326 pp. $23.95. Reviewed by Tova Reich Author, "Mara," "Master of the Return," and most recently "The Jewish War"

What Allegra Goodman demonstrates in Kaaterskill Falls is that it is possible to write, in the present tense, a pleasant novel about religious American Jews actually relaxing on vacation, actually noticing and appreciating nature and the scenery around them.

Jews at leisure does not exactly leap to mind as a promising literary subject. When it is done, as in Aharon Appelfeld's Badenheim 1939 or Giorgio Bassani's The ...