A re-issue of the 1984 novel.
THE OUTSIDER traces the lives of Rabbi David Hartman and his family, as they navigate life during the post-Second World War turmoil of mid-century America. It covers a substantial amount of time (decades), and the story touches upon many of the major political and social issues that arose in a America between the 1940s and 1970s. The characters are well-drawn, and you come to root for them. The novel was, at times, a little dry perhaps, but I nevertheless enjoyed it.

David Hartman returned from the Second World War to the small New England town of Leighton Ridge. Rabbi to the fourteen Jewish families in his small community, Hartman, along with his town, spends the years after the war facing the major political and social upheaval of the time. From McCarthyism and nuclear spies, to civil rights and Vietnam, Hartman, along with his best friend, a Congregational minister, helps lead the town through the chaotic changes sweeping the nation.

An ok book (if a bit boring) - For some reason I just kept wanting it to finish - needed a little more human interest.

This book definitely put Howard Fast on my list of authors to read more of their works.
It follows the life of Rabbi David Hartman, who came back from WWII definitely a changed man. He was at the liberation of one of the concentration camps (Dachau). I cannot fathom being an American Rabbi doing that. He comes home, marries, and gets his first synagogue in a small New England town Leighton Ridge. The book follows roughly the next 30 years of his life in Leighton Ridge. The adjustment from New York to small town is hard on his wife which becomes hard on his relationship. They form a close friendship with Congregational minister Martin Carter and his wife. The book explores the struggles of a family, antisemitism, a changing America, and one man's journey through these. I definitely recommend.

This long, mostly well-written if sometimes rather dry novel tells of the life of Rabbi David Hartman. After serving as an army chaplain in WWII he moves with his wife to the small town of Leighton Ridge and there we follow him through the following decades, from 1948-1977. David is a good man, an honest man, who always tries to do what he considers the right and moral thing. America is changing in so many ways and all of these changes come to Leighton Ridge to some degree or another. McCarthyism, the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, Women’s Lib – David has to face these often cataclysmic events and come to terms with them from both a religious and human point of view. There are a lot of conversations in the novel, in which these issues are discussed, and to some extent David Hartman is there as a mouthpiece for the author's own views and preoccupations, and at times this can slow the narrative down a little, but overall I found this a moving and compelling story of one man’s odyssey through life. It’s not perhaps great literature but it is an engaging narrative which gives an authentic portrait of one man and his family, and of life both in small town America and on the wider stage. A very good read.