Book excerpt: Finkelstein examines a wide range of recent Jewish writing, including poetry, fiction, and literary criticism, in order to determine the changes such writing has undergone in its exposure to modern and postmodern conditions of culture. Featuring discussions of such figures as Gershom Scholem, Harold Bloom, George Steiner, Cynthia Ozick, and John Hollander, The Ritual of New Creation explores certain themes that recur in modern Jewish literature: the relation of the sacred to the secular in Jewish writing; the role of loss and exile; “wandering meaning” and textual transformation. This is a book for all readers interested in modern Jewish literature, but especially for readers concerned with literary theory, the relations of text and commentary, and the fate of literary traditions in the contemporary and postmodern cultural milieu.