Jo Sinclair’s Wasteland (1945) was a prize-winning first novel by a talented young writer exploring questions of Jewish family and identity, psychiatry, and sexuality in the U.S. during World War 2. It’s remarkable for many reasons, not least because it’s the first major U.S. novel with a well-adjusted, happy lesbian character (who happens to be an autobiographical stand-in for the book’s author). Read the novel, if you can, and we’ll discuss it; or if you don’t have time to read it, you can join the class, read some excerpts, and learn more about Sinclair’s work.

Josh Lambert is the Sophia Moses Robison Professor of Jewish Studies and English, and Director of the Jewish Studies Program, at Wellesley College. His most recent book is The Literary Mafia: Jews, Publishing, and Postwar American Literature.