And yet more book reviews

Thanks to our temple librarian, I have been well-supplied with books!  Here are the latest I've read.  The first two were okay, but the third was the best by far.

Flamboyant by Elizabeth Swados
This novel has a very interesting premise: an Orthodox Jewish woman takes a teaching job at a Brooklyn high school populated by mostly gay kids, and befriends a 15 year-old transgender prostitute.  I found it intriguing but not arresting, maybe because I didn't like the Orthodox Jewish character for so long!  What she finds in the school is so opposite to her own beliefs, and even though she tries hard to expand her mind, I really had issues with the way she made the trans girl question her identity and try to be something she's not.   The ending is good, but I found myself annoyed too many times along the way.  That said, the book was published in 1998 and queer theory has come such a long way since then, so I have to give the author kudos for writing what would have been fresh and risky at the time.  I bet I would have admired it much more had I read it 15 years ago.


Growing Up Jewish: An Anthology edited by Jay David
Again, this was okay, not great, but perhaps it was my expectations?  There are 25 short stories, some fiction, some memoir, and a few essays.  The first 10 stories or so are of Jewish turn-of-the-century first generation immigration tales, the next 10 are stories of growing up post-WWII, and only three (3!) address post-1970s growing up.  Which I don't understand, as it was published in 1996.   The tales themselves are nicely varied; to quote the Amazon review, they explore issues of "Jewish identity, language, generational differences, heritage, and rites of passage," and they do do that well, although the writing was uneven from one author to another.  I think in some ways I'm Jewish history over-educated (shocker I know), because the stories all seemed somewhat familiar to me, and many were excerpts of books that I'd already read.  I was looking for something newer, I think, that addressed growing up in more contemporary times, or at least tropes that I hadn't heard before.  For someone who doesn't know much about the topic, however, this would be a wonderful intro, and I would recommend it easily to anyone who wants a primer on the subject.


Unorthodox: A Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman
This book is fascinating.  Read it.  It's well-written, as Feldman is a journalist by trade, and her tale of love, family, and self-exploration as she comes of age is heart-breaking.  It parallels a book I read last year, I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits, for both explore life under the Satmar Hasidic sect, but Markovits' story is fiction, and Feldman's is real.  Also, while Markovits focuses on the life of one family alone, Feldman gives us a glimpse into the entire community, stripped bare with all its foibles laid out for the world to see.  Despite her obvious issues with Satmar Judaism - and we all know how her story ends before it starts! - she still has a deep love and affection for many parts of it, and I really admire how she can speak of the hardest parts of her life and rail against the culture, while at the same time maintaining respect for those who remain.  Nothing is black and white in life, and we're left with the impression that Hasidism is good for some, but not for all, and that there as many problems to be fixed in that world as are in our own.


And now no offense to the librarian, but I'm starting to be jaded, so next up is a bunch of non-Jewish fiction!