Difficult read - Rated 
I found it a difficult read and complicated story-line. I was expecting more fun, a modern story and something we could relate to. Not my cup of tea.
Good book. - Rated 
An excellent book. I learned a lot about (English) Jews, while the story kept me spellbound. I very much liked the end.
Intriguing, but ultimately a little disappointing - Rated 
I had high hopes for this when I picked it up in the bookshop but I was ultimately left slightly unsatisfied. Having said that, much of it was very good. The 3 main characters are all highly engaging and I found myself caring about them and their very different - and very complicated -lives. Ronit is the wayward ex-Orthodox daughter of an erudite (now dead) Rabbi. She lives in NYC, and is a fully paid-up hedonist without even a nod to her former observant self. When her estranged father dies, however, she finds herself returning to all she scorns - namely the closed and judgemental world of the Orthodox Jewish Community in Hendon - and so rekindles past loves, friendships and rebellions. The 2 people who are caught in her orbit, past and present, are her cousin Dovid and her past lover Esti, now - shockingly - Dovid's wife. Dovid is diffident about filling the dead Rabbi's shoes and touchingly in love with his emotionally absent wife, who in turn believes she is still in love with Ronit......
Much of it, especially the complex inter-relationship between Ronit, Esti and Dovid, was beautifully done, and very engaging. There were also some laugh-out-loud moments, notably when Ronit gatecrashes a suffocatingly genteel Shabbat supper and scandalises everyone with her slit skirt and deliberately outrageous tales of lesbian loves and turkey basters.
But somehow something didn't quite add up. I found the introduction to each chapter - with a quote from the Bible/Torah/Jewish teachings irritating and alienating. I couldn't quite work out what they were there for - to show what Ronit was railing against? to cast light on a closed religion and its teachings? Hmmm. In the end I felt like I was at church being preached to, and found myself skipping them, which was obviously not what the author intended.
Nor did I find the denoument - Esti's moment of triumph - credible, much as I wanted to.
I suppose ultimately I found the characters were not quite complete. Perhaps the novel was too short, as I felt I was just getting to know them as it ended. When I put the book down I wasn't sure where Ronit was heading - or even Esti and Dovid - but maybe that was the point. I did enjoy the writing though, it was poetic without feeling self-conscious, and deeply felt. And sometimes very funny. I will be interested to read her next one...
Good, could do better - Rated
A good first attempt, but sadly lacking brilliance. The idea of the book is excellent, and the character of, Ronit, engaging. Unfortunately, the other characters are misty and one-dimensional, and the plot a little uncertain in what it is trying to say. Another problem is the rather sweeping references to British Jews, as though this one particular sect epitomized the entirety of British Jewry. (No more daft than comparing the Wee Frees with all British Christianity.) It would be wrong to say this book was unenjoyable. There is certainly talent there. And perhaps these days we're too used to demanding a bestseller immediately from every writer who happens to be published. This author shows talent, and hopefully will learn from her mistakes and continue to grow.
Perseverance is Required - Rated
The book jacket compares Alderman to Zadie Smith. I think this is unfair to both authors and the readers. Smith has a knack for wry humour and a deep understanding of what it is to be an alien in your own country, yet there is a great affection for her characters and geography always present. Alderman has some of this, but it is much patchier and less defined than Smith's work. She also has other gifts which are overlooked by this sweeping comparison. Alderman deals with the essence of what it is to be Jewish, and how to relate someone's fragile sense of humanity to the permanent solidity of 'God'. This seems to me to be the ovearching theme of the book. Each chapter is headed with passages from Jewish scriptures which are then discussed in a kind of mini sermon. These are dynamic and very interesting. Where the book falls down, for me, is in the characterisation. The central characters, Ronit, Esti and Dovid, who are locked in a peculiar and sympathetic love triangle, are intriguing but seem quite shadowy, subsumed by the issues with which Alderman wrestles: how to remain true to orthodox Judaism in the modern world, exile, what it is to be a Jewish woman, what it is to be a lesbian and a Jewish woman. These are big questions and ideas in what is a fairly short book, and as such the book often comes across as fragmented and bitty. There is lots to admire, but this is not, to me, a finished work. I would definitely read more of her work, as I want to see how she progresses as a writer. She shows great promise.
|
