mizdoubleu's review against another edition
4.0
Skilled storytelling with lots of heart. Erika Dreifus' characters face some of the most difficult challenges this world could throw at people. And in these well-drawn snapshots of the characters' lives, their responses draw each reader into the story to feel the reverberations in his or her own life. Containing aching loss and joy, these stories are both particular to Jewish history and contemporary culture, as well as universal.
beccak's review
4.0
I know Erika Dreifus from her blogs and a short story that appeared on JewishFiction.net, but I had yet to read her book. I finally did, and I'm glad. Each tale in the story collection stands alone, but when read together helps develop the tale of American Jewry since the Holocaust. The standouts are the title tale "Quiet Americans" -- written adeptly in the 2nd person POV -- and the final one, "Mishpocha." I was also intrigued by the first story; I wondered how much of the story had a historical basis.
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