I just finished E. L. Doctorow's book City of God, after it was strongly recommended by another member of my bookclub. Doctorow uses a collage of narratives and a threadbare plot to beautifully describe the religious sensibility of Reform Jews.

This is never explicit, in fact Doctorow tries to distinguish the 'Evolutionary Judaism' community at the center of his novel from neighbouring Reform congregations. But this is a mere finesse - the various metaphysical disquisitions that form the heart of the book are of precisely the sort that arise in every Reform community: the cosmological implications of twentieth century physics and philosophy, the skeptical engagement with traditional sources, the centrality of the holocaust in shaping Jewish affiliation and the uneasy self-awareness that comes with breaking with tradition.

I think my friend likely appreciated the book because to him, a nominally Christian secular cosmopolitan, the ideas are novel and the Reform approach is appealing. To secular liberal humanists, Reform Judaism provides just enough numinousness, without requiring rationality to be burned on the sacrificial altar. Moreover it forms a broad point of contact with a rich literature and tradition, yet carefully avoids encroaching on personal freedom.

But as someone raised in a Reform congregation, I found the book deeply unsatisfying precisely because it fails to deal with the flipside of Reform - its failure to nourish successive generations of committed and knowledgeable jews.

Life on Earth flourishes in the great radiance provided by the Sun. In a similar way, Reform communities thrive because they feed off a rich jewish history and tradition. The founders of the Reform movement were steeped in Jewish learning. But in every generation, the proportion of members in Reform communities with deep jewish roots diminishes. Children from Reform congregations assimilate more rapidly than from any other branch of Judaism. Indeed, in Doctorow's super-intelligent and spiritual congregation there are no children. 'Evolutionary Judaism' is a singularly inappropriate moniker for a Reform congregation - the greatest danger Reform faces is that Jewish history will come to see it as an evolutionary dead end.

Any writer can describe scenes and transmit facts. But to successfully communicate a sensibility requires enormous skill. I doubt that Doctorow's intention was to illuminate the nature of Reform Judaism ; nevertheless, he does so astonishingly well. I'm going to pick up his book about the Rosenberg trial, "The Book of Daniel".