In A Better Tomorrow, Charles Rammelkamp presents us with a series of connected short stories which examine religious intolerance from the vantage point of Robert Kleinpoppen and Daniel Morgenbesser, two converts to Judaism. Don't get me wrong, I think Rammelkamp is generally a good writer. He's competent enough at creating reasonably believable characters and he has a natural gift for anecdotal narrative. Unfortunately, Mr. Rammelkamp's treatment of this material is problematic, at best.
At work, Kleinpoppen encounters intolerance from his boss Romanchuck, a cartoonish bigot. In the opening story, Kleinpoppen engages his nemesis in a conversation about circumcision. He tells Romanchuck that, as a convert, he went through a mock circumcision in which is penis was marked. When Romanchuck runs off to tell a lackey about it as if it were a joke, Kleinpoppen runs home to tell his wife who is, of course, supportive. Being as Romanchuck is a cartoonish, bigot and Kleinpoppen not only knows this, but doesn't even like the guy, why would he feel the need to divulge such personal information about himself? In another story, "The Unkindest Cut," we gather that Kleinpoppen's mother-in-law hasn't quite come to terms with her daughter's husband. As stories go this is one of the better efforts in the book, even if its resolution, involving Kleinpoppen's infant son, is a little too easy. However, just a few stories later, we learn that his wife, Judy, was married before and that her first husband beat her. Hmm, so we're to believe that after having a wife-beater for a son-in-law, she'd have misgivings about a man who treats her daughter with love and respect? It's little inconsistencies like these which make Kleinpoppen's ordeal as a convert difficult to believe. He is as intolerant in his own way as others are of him. At one point, he even refers to an ex-wife as a "cracker" and doesn't even hide his contempt for his co-workers. That this information is presented without the slightest hint of irony does not go unnoticed.
We never get the sense that either Kleinpoppen or Morgenbesser's conversion came as a result of some great spiritual epiphany or that these men practice their faith with much conviction. These men are truly blessed, yet they take little joy in anything outside their own families. Rather, they make it seem like a chore or an obligation to be a Jew, often embracing their faith the way a not-quite-reformed alcoholic embraces sobriety at a twelve-step meeting. The intolerance they experience is minor in comparison with what many in real life face and they have supportive families which make their feelings of alienation hard to swallow. Nor does it quite compute that either of them would not be accepted by their fellow congregants. As I understand it, Jews are "the chosen people" because they chose God, not because God chose them. Conversion is a subject of great solemnity to the Jews, which is why they don't go about franchising their religion the way Christians do. One would think that a convert who came to the faith of his own free will would be welcomed into the fold by those educated in the faith without reservation or suspicion. One would think . . .
Certainly, the "short story collection as novel" is not an easy format for any writer. To be fair, the stories involving Morgenbesser are stronger entries in this book and the subplot involving the disgraced Rabbi Schulman adds a wrinkle to the fabric. It might have been interesting to see what this book might have been had Mr. Rammelkamp not saw fit to parallel the lives Kleinpoppen and Morgenbesser so closely and dropped Kleinpoppen from the book, altogether or, better yet, written it solely from the perspective of Rabbi Schulman. As it stands these stories seem false and overly contrived, with characters who provide little genuine insight into the Jewish faith.