Pearl AbrahamCritiques

In Giving Up America Pearl Abraham has produced a novel about a Jewish American couple living in New York. While re-modeling their new house, the tedious work is tiring and their individual styles clash. Daniel, a perfectionist, is often generally critical of Deena as well as her work as copy editor.

After 7 years, their marriage is flagging. While Daniel has been financially prudent, he now seems to need and want more fun in his life. He buys bikes for them, pays for dance and ski lessons. And befriends Jill a young, single co-worker and her married friend Ann.

Deena wants to continue working on their home but Daniel spends more and more time phoning and hanging out with Jill. Deena's reaction is odd... until it is too late.

I like Abraham's characterization of Deena and other female characters as mostly strong, moral and active. Daniel comes across as churlish, weak and hypocritical.

The idea of dating couples taking dance lessons as a test of compatibility is smart.

On page 114, Abraham is spot on describing a dance session between Daniel and an angry Deena attend, with the words: "They stood facing each other, waiting for the music to start, and Daniel smiled. Deena swallowed and forced something down. This is what its like for women who stay. They don't say anything. They absorb and swallow and soon there is nothing left to say. But they hate, how they hate.And still they stay."

Very good read.

I really liked it. I want to know what happened to Rachel and the rest of her family.

This book has been sitting on my shelf for too long. I started reading it and I liked it a lot.
Partly because it gave more information on orthodox Jewish life and habits, also because I grew very fond of the rebel daughter.

It was a nice and quite easy book to

This novel tells of Rachel, a teenager and the oldest child of a Chasidic family in upstate New York. Thwarted by the restrictive culture of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, she pines for more freedom in her life.

Light and easy to read, The Romance Reader peeps into the fascinating culture of Chasidic Judaism. I especially loved reading about how Rachel handled the situation in which she was forced to meet the young man selected by the matchmaker to be her future husband. Though very well written, I felt it ended too abruptly. I wanted to read much more about Rachel's life. I do hope that Ms. Abraham continues to write stories which share this very special culture with the world.

It's a coming of age story set in a very particular Chassidic family in a very particular Chassidic sect, modern day, and the narrator is the oldest girl of seven children. Her father is determined to have his own synagogue and congregation, and the family subsists on the sales of a book on the Kabbalah that he writes and sells through travel and through the mail. What Rachel wants is to be free to choose her own life, and she bucks against the rules over and over again, reading English language books, learning to be a life-guard and wear a swim-suit, eat what is forbidden, and so forth.

The story covers her late teenage years, and I was interested to find out how the author handles the obligatory early wedding with minimal courtship. SPOILERI think the author got her into and out of a disastrous marriage in rather arbitrary ways, without resolving how she would spend her life afterwards But ultimately, I wasn't interested enough in the details to read more than the first third and last third of the book, skimming the rest.

I can't rate this becuase I have profoundly mixed feeligns about this. On one hand, I found it an admirable attempt at an empathic telling of a complex story. On another, I found it didactic and overly flat. Both felt purposefull.

I'm going to ponder my thoughts for a while.

My first foray into the Hassidic Jewish lifestyle. I found it quite fascinating and eye-opening. I thought the characters were well written and I really enjoyed Rachel. She stood up for herself and wanted to live her own life and I applaud that.½

Narrated by Suzanne Toren. Rachel is the oldest child of a rabbi in a large Hassidic Jewish family. Growing up, she comes to resent the strictness of her family and culture. Rachel has an independent spirit and mind that is regularly dismissed. Well-read, lively, with memorable characters and emotions. Could be a YA read. Lib notes: Scenes of Rachel in sex play with cousin Elke, fantasies of men, Israel trying to make love, but not graphic.

Mich interessiert schon lange, wie orthodoxe Juden leben und wie es Frauen in dieser Gesellschaft geht. Das Buch stellt dieses Leben aus der Sicht von Rachel dar. Rachel stößt sich allerdings an den Beschränkungen des strengen Lebens, so fällt die Betrachtung des Buches eher negativ aus. Ich hatte große Schwierigkeiten in das Buch hineinzukommen und wollte es anfangs schon wieder weglegen. Nun habe ich es fertig gelesen und es hat mir gefallen. Es ist erstaunlich, wie verschieden die Strömungen des Judentums sind. Einerseits gibt es Frauen als Rabbinerinnen, andererseits diese ultrakonservativen Gesellschaften.
Das Titelbild finde ich übrigens komplett verfehlt.½

I loved this book...my first exposure to this lifestyle and so it was fascinating. And it didn't hurt that coming of age is my favorite kind of book, and I loved Rachel (protagonist).

The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham is a book that was brought to my attention recently, while reading Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman.

Unorthodox is the true story of Deborah’s “escape” from a strict Hasidic (Jewish) community. One of her inspirations for leaving was Pearl Abraham’s novel, The Romance Reader.

And it’s interesting, too, because The Romance Reader really is the fictional version of Unorthodox.

The title is sooo misleading: this book is NOT a romance.

For the full review, visit Love at First Book

Interessant omwille van de inhoud, vrij eenvoudige stijl, veel dialogen. Goede inkijk in een chassidisch gezin met zeven kinderen, vader rebbe, obstinaat wakend op het naleven van kleding- en gedragvoorschriften. Wel warme vader, maar het naleven van de religie doorkruist vaak begrip en tolerantie.

De pijn van herkomst en opvoeding. Een vrouw en echtgenote kan moeilijk afstand doen van de Chassidische erfenis van haar jeugd..

Deena wil trouwen met Daniel, een orthodoxe jood, Deena's vader, een chassidische geleerde, verzet zich aanvankelijk krachtig tegen dit huwelijk: Toch lijkt het aanvankelijk een gelukkig huwelijk te worden. Samen werken Deena en Daniel aan de restauratie van een oud huis, hun droomhuis.
Dan brengt Daniel van zijn werk twee jonge vrouwen mee. Eén van hen komt uit het zuiden en is van plan deel te nemen aan de Miss Amerika-verkiezingen, de ander is haar beste vriendin.
Daarmee onstaan ook de eerste barsten in het fundament van het huwelijk van Deena en Daniel: de waarden waarmee Deena is opgegroeid en haar gevoel van wat 'thuis' betekent, komen op losse schroeven te staan.

A story of the unheard world of Hassidic Judaism. I knew almost nothing about it before reading this, and I'm still in awe of some of the strange rituals and rules of the religion. The story telling is apt, but the real joy in this novel is the eye-opening world of ultra-conservative Judaisim

Un romanzo che trae spunto dalla vicenda biografica dell'autrice e che presenta il tema della difficile conciliazione tra modernità e cultura di appartenenza. La giovane Rachel, in questa storia, intraprende una caparbia lotta contro i divieti assurdi, gli obblighi e i tabù imposti dalla comunità di ebrei chassidim a cui appartiene. La ribellione inizia da adolescente con la lettura clandestina di libri non ebraici e prosegue fino al matrimonio, nel tentativo di un equilibrio, di una riappropriazione di sé, di una disperata specie di felicità senza dovere rinnegare le proprie radici.

Got this at a book exchange party. Feeding my fascination with orthodox Judaism, specifically Chasidic in this book.

Got this at a book exchange party. Feeding my fascination with orthodox Judaism, specifically Chasidic in this book.

I've read about a hundred pages and then let my husband read it--both are reading it for a book group meeting in December. It deals with a young surfer/skateboarder who is injured and becomes enamored with studying Islam. His parents, ultra-permissive and indulgent, do not object. All this occurs before 9/11. My son, a Muslim convert, says that the book is interesting but full of errors re Islam. My guess is that it is based on John Walker Lind. I look forward to finishing it.

A thought provoking story. In American Taliban we follow the journey of John Jude Parish an 18 year old American surfer, skater and philosophy student from the Outer Banks of North Carolina as he develops a fascination with the Arabic language and culture, and the philosophy of Islam. A year later he's in a Taliban training camp in Pakistan, where his journey of self discovery intersects with the hard reality of a post 9/11world.½

John Jude Parish decides to postpone attending Brown and focus on surfing, skateboarding and exploring his own academic agenda. His mom, Barbara, helps him develop a reading list as a compromise. By August, he is already behind, choosing focus on surfing and skateboarding. An accident changes everything. John spends time exploring religions and finds himself corresponding with an Islamic girl from Brooklyn. He decides to attend school to study Arabic which leads him on done a path unlike anything he or his parents planned or imagined. Pearl Abraham writes a thought provoking story about decisions that seem insignificant at the time but when combined together change the course of one young man's life.

Why I was Interested: I was in the mood for something different, so I decided to deviate from my to be read list and browse the shelves at the library. I was drawn to the title and cover art on this book. The cover combines a patriotic color scheme with both American and Islamic symbols and icons. Charles Bock's, author of Beautiful Children, blurb on the back cover also spoke to me. In the end his blurb summed up the book perfectly:
When I glanced at the title of this book, I thought I knew what I was getting into. I had no clue. American Taliban is so much more than just the story of an American kid who ends up joining the Taliban. John Jude is a superb literary creation: the smart, generous, open-minded teenager that every parent would be proud to raise. Well-written to the point where you can't put the damn thing down, American Taliban is empathetic, enlightening, and frightening all at once, a story that not only opens your eyes but gives you ideas to learn from, viewpoints to argue with. it is a rare delight to be given a novel that actually makes you think, rarer still to have a book utterly rip open your heart. American Taliban is that rarest of accomplishments, one that does both at the same time.
~from the back cover, Charles Bock, author of Beautiful Children
Why I finished it: Admittedly I almost stopped reading American Taliban because I was beginning to feel intellectually inferior to John. He was so motivated to learn and always chose options to challenge himself and learn. But instead of giving up on it, I decided to take the challenge of this book and learn from John.

I'd share it with: People looking for a contemporary fiction book that will challenge the way they think. I think everyone should read this book, but fear that not many will and may even find it intimidating. I think this book would be great for discussion, maybe even a community or campus read. I also think this would be of interest to older teens (17+).

Other books to try: While this is very different then The Kite Runner, I think people who liked it would also like American Taliban. It is similar in that readers learn about Islam and Afghan and Pakistani culture.

Did not enjoy nearly as much as Abraham's book, The Romance Reader.

Rachel is the teenaged daughter of a rabbi in a cloistered Hasidic community. She's quite the rebel: she gets a library card, reads romance novels, wears sheer stockings, goes out without a kerchief, and wants to wear a swimsuit while working as a lifeguard (as opposed to an ankle-length dress). This book would have been much less frustrating had the rest of the family been more sympathetic. Everyone was so spiteful and self-centered, ready to sell out their kin in an instant to make themselves look good in front of the neighbors. It was frankly sickening. The ending was moderately uplifting, but by that point I was so tired of the petty bickering that I was just ready for it to be over. It was interesting to learn a little bit about Orthodox Jewish customs, such as the various things they cannot do during Shabbat and their wedding rituals, but mostly I wanted to take everyone in this family by the shoulders and give them a good shake.

Note: All comments in this review refer exclusively to the characters and situations in this novel. None of my comments are meant to apply to Hasidic culture or the Jewish community in general.

[The Romance Reader] by [[Pearl Abraham]] describes the Chassidic girl Rachel between the ages of 13 and 17. The cover told me that Rachel grows up in a stifling religious atmosphere, so I expected the girls in the novel to be treated differently than the boys, but still some of the rituals really shocked me. The story is well-written, with a clear voice that perfectly suits a teenager, and I think Abrahams describes the mood and attitude swings of an adolescent girl really well. Rachel sways back and forth between being rebellious and putting up with her parents’ wishes (that mostly have to do with keeping up appearances). However, Rachel’s many brothers and sisters remain hazy. Similarly, her parents switch from ultra-old-fashioned to a bit more reasonable (and then back again to medieval values). Though this annoyed me at some points, reading this novel still was a great experience.½

A coming-of-age story set in the cloistered world of Hasidic Judaism. Rachel rebels against her strict upbringing by wearing sheer stockings, getting a library card and taking lifeguard lessons. When she turns 17, she is expected to marry. The book ends in a failed arranged marriage. Fascinating way to learn about another culture, but not much depth to the characters.