This dual story about Jewish families and Grossinger's Resort bridges the generations from before World War II to the rise of the counterculture-- A blend of novel, memoir, and oral history reveals the complete insider's tale of the rise and fall of Grossinger's Resort in the Catskills, and of several generations of Jewish families in America.

This ingenious book fuses literary genres to paint a fascinating double portrait. The first canvas captures the famed resort in the Catskills, sweeping from 19th-century Poland to Manhattan's Lower East Side to Ferndale, New York. It traces the rise and fall of Grossinger's from the 1920s through the '80s.

The second tableau takes a closer look at some of the prominent Jewish families who frequented Grossinger's. The author branches out to the family of his stepfather, Robert Towers (born Reuben Turetsky), an early New York City impresario. Towers's son, Jonathan, becomes a focal point as his life declines from high-school quarterback and track star to street person and mental patient.

A peculiarly American story, Out of Babylon is the author's voyage of self-discovery, the story of North Atlantic Books and alternative publishing, and of Berkeley in the '70s. Though not a sequel to New Moon, one of the author's earlier works, it provides a broader backdrop to many of the same characters and events.

"This is a strong, deeply moving book. I can't think of another example in which the details and particularities of childhood have been evoked so fully, with such painstaking care and precision". -- Paul Auster, author of Moon Palace, Mr. Vertigo, and Smoke.