# Jason Diamond on being a (Jewish-)American Author

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-five-books-jewish-authors-on-the-books-that-shaped-them-7105649/jason-diamond-on-being-a-jewish-american-author
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-five-books-jewish-authors-on-the-books-that-shaped-them-7105649/jason-diamond-on-being-a-jewish-american-author.md
Podcast: [The Five Books: Jewish Authors on the Books That Shaped Them](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-five-books-jewish-authors-on-the-books-that-shaped-them-7105649)
Published: 2026-02-03T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/mgln.ai/e/51/tracking.swap.fm/track/tcQd6Q6C0RUUlOHq1Ytj/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TPG8608712459.mp3?updated=1769556785
Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/mgln.ai/e/51/tracking.swap.fm/track/tcQd6Q6C0RUUlOHq1Ytj/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TPG8608712459.mp3?updated=1769556785
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Duration seconds: 3403

## Resource

In this conversation, Jason Diamond unpacks what it means to be an American, Jewish, or Jewish-American author. We also discuss family secrets, Jewish gangsters, the humor and alienation of Franz Kafka, and how Art Spiegelman’s Maus taught Jason to accept his family’s silences. Jason’s debut novel, Kaplan’s Plot, follows Elijah Mendes, who returns to Chicago after his tech business collapses and discovers that his family owns a Jewish cemetery, where a man he’s never heard of — his great-uncle Solomon Kaplan — is buried. As Elijah begins to untangle his family’s past, the novel moves between his present-day relationship with his mother, Eve, who is dying of cancer, and the earlier story of his grandfather, Yitz Kaplan. That past narrative traces Yitz and his brother Sol from a pogrom in Odessa to their arrival in America alone, and follows the brothers’ complicated bond as Yitz rises to become a Jewish gangster in 1920s Chicago. Jason Diamond has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, The Wall Street Journal, McSweeny's, NPR, and many other outlets. He is the author of The Sprawl, and the memoir, Searching For John Hughes. He is the co-author (with Nicolas Heller) of New York Nico's Guide to NYC. Jason Diamond’s Five Books: 1. Maus by Art Spiegelman 2. Amerika by Franz Kafka 3. Be Here Now by Ram Dass 4. The Gods of New York by Jonathan Mahler and Effingers by Gabriele Tergit 5. Kaplan’s Plot by Jason Diamond Stay tuned at the end of the episode for a bonus book selection by literary insider, Erika Dreifus. ErikaDreifus.com Other Others who Chose Art Spiegelman’s Maus: Benjamin Resnick on the Enduring Precariousness of Jewish Life Georgia Hunter on Discovering her Family’s Jewish History The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the…

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