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More copies of this ISBN:Disobedienceby Naomi Alderman
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:For Ronit Krushka, thirty-two and single, who lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Orthodox Judaism is a suffocating culture she fled long ago. When she learns that her estranged father, the pre-eminent rabbi of the London Orthodox Jewish community in which she was raised, has died, she leaves behind her Friday night takeout, her troublesome romance, and her boisterous circle of friends and returns home for the first time in years. There, amid the traditional ebb and flow of the community — the quiet young women returning from their kosher shops and the men with their tightly clutched prayer books — Ronit reminds herself of her dual mission: to mourn and to collect a single heirloom — her mother's Shabbat candlesticks. But when Ronit reconnects with her complex and beloved cousin Dovid and with a forbidden childhood sweetheart, she becomes more than just a stranger in her old home — she becomes a threat. Driven by wit and beautifully rendered detail, Disobedience pulls back the curtain on a devout and closed world. Set at the crossroads of tradition and modernity, of personal desires and the demands of God, Disobedience is about the importance of moving on and what we lose when we do — and it is about the tendency toward disobedience that we all have. Review:"Alderman draws on her Orthodox Jewish upbringing and current life in Hendon, England, for her entertaining debut, which won the Orange Prize for New Writers after it was published in the U.K. in March. In writing about the inhabitants of this small, gossipy society, Alderman cleverly uses a slightly sinister, omniscient 'we' to represent a community that speaks with one voice, and her descriptions of Orthodox customs are richly embroidered. Alternating with this perspective is the first-person narrative of Ronit Krushka, a woman who has left the community and is now a financial analyst in New York. After the death of her estranged father, a powerful rabbi, Ronit returns to England to mourn her father and to confront her past, including a female lover. But Ronit's shock that an Orthodox lesbian would marry a man rings false, as does her casually condescending attitude toward the community. By the time of the theatrical, unrealistic climax, Ronit's struggle between religious and secular imperatives gets reduced to clich ('all we have, in the end, are the choices we make'), but Ronit works well as a vehicle for the opinion that even the most alienated New York Judaism is preferable to the English version, where 'the Jewish fear of being noticed and the natural British reticence interact.' (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"Though this novel covers some of the same territory as Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, it breaks new ground by extending equal sympathy to both the rebel and those she left behind." Library Journal Review:"Can an Orthodox Jew be a lesbian? Two women, one a rabbi's daughter, find different solutions to the problem." Kirkus Reviews Review:"An excellent choice for women's book clubs." Booklist Review:"A wonderful novel. The real wonder is Alderman's capacity for original thinking....Orthodoxy absolutely glows out of the pages of Disobedience, as rich and fresh and fascinating as this lovely novel itself." The Sunday Times (UK) Synopsis:In this poignant debut novel, a woman finds herself caught between the Orthodox Jewish community that raised her and the secular world that changed her. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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