I have had a feeling all along that some day Jacobson would write a "big" novel, big in scope. Some fiction writers do better with small canvases, and that's fine, but others need room to move around in. The diversity of Jacobson's experiences has seemed to demand the development of a large and complicated pattern. This is what he has worked out in The Beginners, which portrays several generations in several countries….

[The] prologue, beautifully told, gives us the character of Avrom, the strange blending of true generosity with sentimental self-indulgence. None of the other characters in the book is made like Avrom, but we come to see the mixed motives out of which they act. (p. 37)

The cast is large, and not every character can be fully developed, but each one is alive, even if he is on stage for only a few minutes. One also has...