A Harvard junior yesterday read to an audience of 70 from her collection of short stories, which will be published by Harper and Row in May of 1989.

Allegra S. Goodman '89 read "Total Immersion," a story published in the October 1987 issue of "Commentary" magazine, in a public reading at Hillel.

"Total Immersion" is about a Jewish prep school teacher and the culture conflict she encounters when she and her husband move to Hawaii. The story is told mostly through the often humorous dialogue of its many characters.

Goodman, who lives in Hawaii, said most of her stories deal with Jewish characters and their relation to a larger community. "I'm interested in the interplay of different cultures and the various religious and ethnic differences I saw when I was growing up," she said.

Five of the short stories to appear in Goodman's book were published in Commentary, a magazine published by the American Jewish Committee. Two plays by Goodman, "Oral History" and "The Wave," were performed at Leverett House last semester. She has also published poetry in the New England Sampler and the Honolulu Quarterly.

"It's enjoyable to get an audience response," Goodman said of the reading. "Since most of my stories are designed to be funny, it's good to finally hear the laughter."