The House of Love and Prayer: and Other Stories

by Tova Reich

"[Tova Reich’s] verbal blade is amazingly, ingeniously, startlingly, all-consumingly, all-encompassingly, deservedly, and brilliantly savage.”—Cynthia Ozick

In this extraordinary collection of short fiction, Tova Reich dives deep into the world of Orthodox Jewry—a world that her stories, like the shows "Unorthodox" and "Shtisel," embrace with respect and affection while also poking at the faultlines in its unshakeable traditions.

The eight stories collected in this volume are all populated by seekers—of holiness, illumination, liberation, meaning, love. Their journeys unfold in the U.S., Israel, Poland, China, often in the very heart of the Jewish world, and are rendered with an insider’s authority. The narrative voice bringing all this to life has been described as fearlessly satiric and subversive, with a moral but not moralizing edge, equally alive to the sacred and the profane, comically absurd to the point of tragedy.

From the opening story, “The Lost Girl” (winner of a National Magazine Award in Fiction) to “Dead Zone” in the closing pages of this collection, we are confronted with souls unable to rest, unable to find release, searching for their place in this life, and beyond. Between these two stories, we encounter a true believer seeking personal redemption in China (“Forbidden City”), and an aged woman longing at the end of her life to find a way back to her mother (“The Plot”). Three of the stories, “The Page Turner,” “The Third Generation,” and “Dedicated to the Dead,” are  animated by the long-term fallout from the Holocaust—generational trauma, abuse of memory, competitive victimization, and more. In the midst of all this is the story “The House of Love and Prayer,” which, in its way, encompasses the entire spectrum. 

The novelist Howard Norman has said, "Few contemporary writers are truly original. Tova Reich is one of them." Read this book and discover her satiric genius.

Genres: Short Stories, Jewish, Judaism

224 pages, Hardcover

Published May 16, 2023

Reviews

[Jo M]

I read the first two stories but felt meh and never could motivate myself to start again,,, then my hold lapsed. Maybe someday I’ll finish but DNF for now

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories contains thought-provoking and at times disturbing tales. They contain elements of Jewish tradition and thought, but each contains a twist (or more than one) that changes lives and the futures of the characters. Several of the tales are better than the others in this collection, but all are interesting reads.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

A largely disturbing and unpleasant read, but points for creativity

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have literally no words. I’ve never read something like this and I’m feeling like I’m losing my mind… but not in a bad way? I feel so full of opinions that I cannot verbalize in any way. This book was doing almost too much but also so incredibly clever that I couldn’t figure out how to feel. Ack!!

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes an idea for a review doesn’t work out the way I planned. For example, I decided to discuss “Inside Information” by Eshkol Nevo (Other Press) and “The House of Love and Prayer and other stories” by Tova Reich (Seven Stories Press) in one review because neither book is a novel. However, while that is true, the fictional works in each are very different lengths – three novellas in Nevo’s book compared to eight short stories in Reich’s – and focus on completely different types of people. For example, Nevo’s characters are non-religious Israelis, while Reich writes mostly about observant Jews. That means the two books don’t offer many points for comparison.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...

[William Thompson]

“Brilliant” is overused. So is ‘daring.” And “provocative.” Likewise “informative.” And “funny.” Not to mention ‘gleeful religious absurdist.” “Deeply imaginative” or “wryly feminist.” This collection is all of those things. It’s even occasionally shocking. Tova Reich’s style reminds me of Evelyn Waugh’s: confident, therefore willing to take risks; morally committed, therefore able to see clearly, also delighted in the resources of language and imagination: she is enjoying herself and stating that joy. Reich also reminds me Oscar Wilde in his fairy tales mode, of Borges, and Jonathan Swift and of Terry Castle.

An astonishing book. I immediately ordered another by her.

[Sharyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the weirdest books I have ever read. I am not really a short story fan, but I saw this in the new book section, and it looked interesting. There are some Sci fi elements as some of the stories take place in the future, but most have a Holocaust theme. Some of the stories are better than most, but I liked the last, very strange story the most.

[E · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK short stories about modern Judaism. A good number of them are just plain dumb. A few laughs here and there; not a ton of insight. A quick read, thankfully, and not a terrible one. Just not one I'd really recommend to anyone.

[G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really liked "The Lost Girl," and all the stories were thought-provoking, but I have to admit that as a whole I'm not sure I "get" this collection. Some great writing, though. I wish I had her defiantly run-on style.

[Liliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbingly comedic and comedically disturbing — which is to say, very Jewish, which is to say, I would have read more. A distinctly cultural voice without hyperbole or platitude. Witty like a bubbe.

[Erika Dreifus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Find my review over on the Moment Magazine website: https://momentmag.com/book-review-a-w....

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some are extraordinary. Others simply strange. But what an incredible imagination.

[Dina]

DNF all stories

[Sara'la · Rating 3 out of 5]

An undercurrent of weird with no real focus/point to them.

Favorite story: the dead zone.

[Luke]

Pub 2023

[Dani Winkler · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn’t for me but that’s okay

[Aniyah Thorpe · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a fine read. Kind of disturbing but fine.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toss every ingredient you’ve got in the pot to (likely) end up with salt soup, or mix all the Roy’s, G’s and Biv’s on the palette for a healthy globule of black paint, but how much captivating story can be crammed into 20 pages before it becomes an unorganized mush of data overkill? With this rare sort of care, oodles. And here are eight stories depicting brilliant “but what if we poke at tradition’s tripod” scenes from young, middle and aged Jewish life that switch focal points and mood with the emergi-casual fluidity of a lazy river concealing heavy undertow. Somehow taking both the scenic and shortest route, never landing in view of each story's launch site, House flips the glycemic dream of taking a frozen orange tube of juice concentrate from the freezer, eating it like an apple and sugar-flying to the sugar-moon in the comfort of your living room into a bibliophilic reality.