To read the works of Hugh Nissenson is to confront such issues as the meaning of existence, the brutality of life, the nature of evil, God's relationship to man, man's need and search for redemption, and being Jewish in a hostile world.

Hugh Nissenson made his debut as an American-Jewish writer with the publication, in 1965, of his collection of, as one critic notes, "superbly crafted" short stories entitled A Pile of Stones, winner of the Edward Lewis Wallant Memorial Award. These stories, some of which appeared previously in journals such as Commentary ("The Groom of Zlota Street" and "The Law"), Harper's ("The Blessing" and "The Well"), Esquire ("A Pile of Stones"), and American Judaism ("The American"), encapsulate Nissenson's progress as a writer, while the tripartite division of A Pile of Stones--"Then: Poland," "Now: Israel," and "Then and Now: America"--adumbrates Nissenson's ideational and artistic development.

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