Discussed in this essay:

Here I Am, by Jonathan Safran Foer. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 592 pages. $28.

In the opening scene of Jonathan Safran Foer’s new novel, Jacob and Julia Bloch have been summoned to the office of Rabbi Singer, the head of their son Sam’s Hebrew school. Sam, in the midst of prepping for his bar mitzvah, is facing suspension for having written down a long list of racial, ethnic, and sexual epithets, a catalogue of taboo words whose power fascinates boys his age. Adding to the delicacy of the situation, at least in Rabbi Singer’s mind,…