?As he did in the first volume of his trilogy, Creative Awakening (CH. Sep 87), social historian Harap utilizes literature as research material. Although they appeared earlier than 1950, he rightly details the integral role of three journals--Menorah Journal, Partisan Review, and Commentary as stimuli to burgeoning Jewish creativity. Delmore Schwartz and Isaac Rosenfeld are examined as precursors of the post-WWII literature of alienation. Harap continues his discussion of Jewish characters as depicted by both Jewish and non-Jewish authors, but he focuses on the outpourings of Jewish writers beginning with the 1950s, which he terms the Jewish Decade.'' Reasons for Jewish entry into the mainstream range from a more open awareness of anti-Semitism, as portrayed in works such as Laura Z. Hobston''s media-successful Gentleman''s Agreement (1947), to public interest in Jews triggered by the revelation of the Holocaust and the ensuing reestablishment of the state of Israel. Whole chapters are devoted to critical analyses of Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, and Norman Mailer. The last section examines religiously committed newer writers, such as Chaim Potok, Arthur Cohen, and Cynthia Ozick.?-Choice