Only the details of the novel are particular to the Jewish community. I wanted to convey this world through descriptions of ritual and holidays. But I think the themes of the novel go beyond this particular community. Someone else told me that the ladies in the book are just like her aunts, and she is Asian American. I think that all communities deal with issues of what makes one an insider or an outsider.
Any religious community has to negotiate a means of preserving a tradition.
And I think that the desire for community is universal. Today especialy, when there isn't as much sense of being part of a particular community, people are looking for ways to recreate a feeling of belonging. Down here, we feel both part of the city and a little separate from it. We've lived here for so many generations and yet, we feel a sense that we too are outsiders in some way. I think that in many ways this is typical of the experience of being Southern and Jewish.