A major romantic novel of American Jewish life, in the tradition of Marjorie Morningstar. Kane tells the story of Yakov, who is studying to be an Orthodox rabbi, and Rebecca, who is studying to be a Reform rabbi. In spite of their religious differences, they fall in love and take the reader on a journey through modern Judaism.
This is my second book by this author and I enjoyed both. For those who do not have a basic understanding of Jewish denominations and a basic understanding of the ultra religious denominations it may be a little hard to understand and/or to relate to. I thought the author did a terrific job with the topic and I found the religious debates quite interesting.
If this book isn’t for you I recommend reading his book called Joshua’s Tale.
Jacob’s struggle as to who is struck my heart. It seemed in many ways what I have experienced over a lifetime - who I am and who was I meant to be. Then finding satisfaction just as Yankel and Rivka do later in life in a manner that repeats a split between two families of an earlier generation. But now the division is accepted without rancor but with a sense of some regret.
Weird but I ate it up in like one day (two sittings). I was surprised by the ending, not what I expected. Overall, I’d say it was a really interesting read.
Not quite a "worthy successor to Chaim Potok," as the jacket boasts, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. The most amazing thing about the book is that it featured both a Reform Jew and an Orthodox Jew and managed to present both traditions as equally valid, compelling, and worthwhile.
I really wanted to like this one! But I felt it was very contrived and heavy handed. All the players fit too neatly into their characters, except of course, the main couple, searching for their own definitions .
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I very much enjoyed the technical/religious ideas here and found myself thankful for my kindle fire and its web/dictionary access. However, I found the plot and subplots to be sadly too predictable to rate the book any higher than 3 stars.