The ordeal, says Cuddihy, is the "unconsummated social courtship of Gentile and Jew," focused on the predicament of the Jew, caught between his rough, loving community (Yiddishkeit) and the Gentile "host culture/etiquette" that he wants to assimilate. Cuddihy calls it the trauma of culture shock for a decolonized people. National Book Award finalist (Philosophy), 1975