The Beautiful Possible

by Amy Gottlieb

This epic, enthralling debut novel—in the vein of Nicole Krauss’ The History of Love—follows a postwar love triangle between an American rabbi, his wife, and a German-Jewish refugee.

Spanning seventy years and several continents—from a refugee’s shattered dreams in 1938 Berlin, to a discontented American couple in the 1950s, to a young woman’s life in modern-day Jerusalem—this epic, enthralling novel tells the braided love story of three unforgettable characters. In 1946, Walter Westhaus, a German Jew who spent the war years at Tagore’s ashram in India, arrives at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, where he meets Sol Kerem, a promising rabbinical student. A brilliant nonbeliever, Walter is the perfect foil for Sol’s spiritual questions—and their extraordinary connection is too wonderful not to share with Sol’s free-spirited fiancée Rosalie. Soon Walter and Rosalie are exchanging notes, sketches, and secrets, and begin a transcendent love affair in his attic room, a temple of dusty tomes and whispered poetry. Months later they shatter their impossible bond, retreating to opposite sides of the country—Walter to pursue an academic career in Berkeley and Rosalie and Sol to lead a congregation in suburban New York. A chance meeting years later reconnects Walter, Sol, and Rosalie—catching three hearts and minds in a complex web of desire, heartbreak, and redemption. With extraordinary empathy and virtuosic skill, The Beautiful Possible considers the hidden boundaries of marriage and faith, and the mysterious ways we negotiate our desires.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Jewish, Holocaust, Adult Fiction, Book Club, Literary Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published February 16, 2016

About the author

Amy is a graduate of Clark University and the University of Chicago. Her fiction and poetry have been published in Other Voices, Lilith, Puerto del Sol, Zeek, Storyscape, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish Poetry, and elsewhere. She has received a Literary Fellowship and Residency from the Bronx Council on the Arts, and an Arts Fellowship from the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. Amy lives with her family on the edge of the Hudson River in New York City. The Beautiful Possible is her first novel.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

$1.99 kindle special again today!! One of my favorite books!!

I’m still waiting and hoping the author writes a new book!!


Update: $1.99 kindle special today. You can see from my old review- that I LOVED THIS BOOK...
I hope the author has a new novel coming out soon but until then I highly recommend this one.


A FAVORITE...A FAVORITE...A FAVORITE!!!! 5+++++ Stars!!!!!

ANNOUNCEMENT: for my friends & Fiction Readers: We have discovered *GOLD* with Amy Gottlieb's debut novel.
The story is spellbinding -
The prose is pulchritudinous and symphonic-
The characters are bold, brassy, bodacious, and temerarious -

NO SPOILERS in this REVIEW

"Her face will never age, he thinks. One day we will both be old and I will brush her long white hair and remember her standing before me like this, half dressed, fully ripe, smelling like
cardamom."

Walter, his father, and his fiancé, Sonia are planning to go to Palestine -leaving Berlin in 1938...
but when a sudden sad- and horrific tragedy strikes...
Walter ends up on a boat where his ship docks in Bombay. He follows a man wearing a brown felt hat off the boat.
The two men meet. The man with the felt hat is named Paul Richardson. Paul is Oxford educated - had a fellowship in Berlin- and teaches in the American University system. He visits
India about once a year ... and had an interest in Walter being his protege in the United States.
He had read a very impressive paper - written by Walter- on the "Songs of Songs" - a love song - which Paul thinks can alter the field of religion.
Paul has dozens of misty-eye students who would die to be his protege...but very early into this
story we know that Paul see's something very different about Walter. ( we want to know what that is too)
Walter is bright... But aloof. He's not a man to follow laws. He's not interested in Paul's offer.
He's thinking..."Go play cricket. Go off to your American students and teach them Tagore's line
about the butterfly that counts moments and......."
"Please leave me", says Walter".
And, Paul does leave Walter in India ... (for about a year).
Why does Paul come back to India again looking for Walter? Why does Paul want Walter to study with him so much?
And...why does Walter eventually say yes?

Given that Walter is not religious at all... It's kinda funny and a little ridiculous that Walter is being taken to "The Jewish Theological Seminary of America" in New York.
He is to study with the rabbis. Paul tries to tell Walter that his fingers will touch the words he needs to learn... that he can weave himself into the story, morph himself into his Jewish protege.
We begin to know Walter's character -- when he says to Paul, "Don't label me".
Paul agrees. "No labels for the young man with boundless potential".

Sol is in rabbinical school ... engaged to marry Rosalie ( whose own father was a Rabbi) .
Rosalie's mother kept a Jewish home - followed traditions ...but she played with the edges of her husband's beliefs ---"testing the parameters of his faith".
So, Rosalie's mother seemed to be giving a message to her daughter about her 'rabbi-to-be'
fiancé:
"Don't squander your wisdom. You may know more than this man you found.
Sol is learned. He will be a good rabbi. Rabbis come in different flavors, Rosalie.
What flavor is your Sol? Tateh? Is he the God kind of rabbi or the law kind of rabbi?"

As for Rosalie and Walter ..
and
Walter and Paul
and
Walter and Sol
and
Rosalie - Walter - and Sol ..
These relationships are variegated, tangled, and multifarious.

..............A few favorite extracts:

"Books are no more then seeds; we must be both the soil and the atmosphere in which they grow."

"We are all connected in the unending chain of belief and doubt. Together we can answer each other's questions."

"Leave it to you to propose a winter picnic, says Sol.
"It's not officially winter and a sandwich is not quite a picnic. Did you bring the wine?"
"It's not the Sabbath, says Sol. I prefer to save my blessings."
" You are the master of saving everything for another time. Picnics are for spring, wine is
for the Sabbath, sex for marriage, Rosalie sighs. Does it ever stop?"

"This mystery is that the flowing, gushing river never ceases; so a human should never cease
his river and source in this world, so that he grasp it in the world that is coming."
"You are practically quoting Tagore! From Gitanjali. Listen: All things rush on, they don't
stop, they don't look behind, no power, can hold them back, they rush on."

NOTE: I got interested in Tagore from reading this book.... and downloaded some of his stories.

"The Beautiful Possible"....is *beautiful-to-your-soul!!!

Thank you with all my heart for this great reading -pleasure... Harper Collins Publishers, Netgalley, and Amy Gottlieb. ( I'm a new fan!)

[Always Pouting · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those novels where peoples lives intersect over long periods of years in strange ways with the back drop of historical events, mostly centered around a love triangle which isn't quite a love triangle but just someone's wife having an on and off affair with someone else over years. The writing was above average and the characters are faceted. Some times the story got a little slow for me but it wasn't hard to read all the way through. An okay book, nothing memorable but if you read it it's not going to make you angry about wasting your time either.

[Esil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Beautiful Possible did not start out as a 5 star read for me, but about half way through I realized that I was totally immersed in this crazy story and beautiful prose. It ended up being a one day read, high jacking my Sunday and keeping me from a long list of chores. I can't say too much about the story without giving away spoilers. The story follows Rosalie, Sol and Walter from the late 1930s to the present. Rosalie is the daughter of a rabbi in Brooklyn, engaged to marry Sol who is studying to be a rabbi. Walter comes into their lives after leaving Berlin -- via a few years in India -- and after devastating events in Berlin. The three of them are intellectually and emotionally intense. From the time they meet, they form a complex triangle, morally fraught, irreducible to any particular banal description. But the story is really besides the point. I was glued to this book because of the writing and the richness of these characters' perspectives on life, on love, on their relationships. There were so many brilliant passages. There was brilliantly astute insight into the challenges of living in assigned roles -- being a rabbi, the wife of a rabbi and an outsider. I'm a bit tongue tied about it all, but I definitely ended up loving this book and would happily read anything else written by Gottlieb. Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some readers may not care for what happens in the relationships between the characters in this story , may not agree with what they do on a moral level. That was never an issue for me because the relationships here are so genuine, the characters so passionate and some things that seem wrong felt so right . These characters are each in their own way flawed , and the author has done a wonderful job of drawing them out as they evolve over the years . Walter , a German Jew, a refugee to India is haunted by his losses . He comes to New York to study Jewish texts , not as a believer but as a scholar. Sol is a rabbinical student with hopes of his own shul and a life with his fiancé Rosalie. Rosalie is the independent daughter of a rabbi and would have been a good rabbi herself.

The lives of Walter , Sol , and Rosalie become enmeshed from when Sol and Rosalie first meet Walter and over the years and miles that come to separate them and they stay connected over decades. They are connected by friendship , by love and by so much more that becomes evident as the story progresses . The narrative even reflects this as paragraphs about one of them or two of them are followed by a paragraph about the one or the other two , even if they are not in the same place .

I can't comment on the religious aspects of this story in some ways as I'm not Jewish and perhaps a Jewish reader will have a better understanding . However , I felt the sense of faith, the sense of disbelief, and at other times the uncertainty of one's faith. I felt the humanity of people's shortcomings, the lack of understanding sometimes of who they were , the depth of their passions , the depths of their losses and the depths of their love. I felt connected to each of them in some way and I loved the ending . Can't ask for much more .

I was drawn to read this first by this amazing title, which is now my favorite book title and by the more than enthusiastic review of my Goodreads friend, Elyse . Thanks , Elyse for introducing me to Amy Gottlieb.

Thanks to HarperCollins and Edelweiss for the opportunity to read this advance copy.

[Violet wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

The central thrust of the publisher’s promotion of this novel is to liken it to Nicole Krauss’ The History of Love. However, though this too is a Jewish “history of love”, The Beautiful Possible is essentially a very conventional novel in terms of structure, perspective, character study and plot. It has none of the exuberant architectural mischief of Nicole Kraus’ novel. What prevents The Beautiful Possible from being the playing out of just another rather predictable love triangle is Gottlieb’s poetic prose style (I would guess Michael Ondaatje has had far more influence on her than Nicole Krauss) and the rich texture of Jewish spirituality informing the text. One element of this latter feature is the employment of the rabbinic game of question and answer known as She'ela and Teshuva as a motif throughout the novel. One person asks a question of a spiritual nature; another tries to answer it. And this is what all the characters in this novel are doing, asking spiritual questions of each other.

The novel begins on a note of high drama. Gottlieb creates her first triangle, arguably the most haunting one. It’s 1938. Walter is in bed with his lover Sonia while his father in the next room feeds sheet music to the flames in the fire. In a few pages Gottlieb does a fabulous job of creating the kind of sexual intimacy that will for ever afterwards be remembered and missed. When Walter and Sonia get hungry Sonia offers to go into the kitchen to get some crackers. As she does so a murder squad enter the house. Sonia and his father are shot; Walter saves himself by hiding under the bed. The spiritual imperative of the novel is established - to keep the spirit of Sonia alive.

After spending the war years in an ashram in India, Walter arrives in New York where he becomes the study partner of Sol at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Sol is about to marry Rosalie whose father was a rabbi. Walter and Rosalie embark on an affair before her marriage to Sol. So the plot veers dangerously towards a very clichéd set-up –a love triangle featuring an almost impossibly attractive poetic male, a somewhat repressed but kind hearted husband and an independently-minded female torn between convention and rebellion.

I was enthralled for the first 200 pages. Then it went a little flat for me. Partly this was down to Gottlieb’s determination to continue writing about Walter and Rosalie’s relationship in the exuberantly romantic language of youth even when they’re middle aged and beyond. It’s as if the characters are moored in Gottlieb’s youthful romantic assessment of them. (This is perhaps ironicised (is that a word?) by a twist late in the novel.) Thus poor Sol, the steadfast cuckolded husband, the uninspired and uninspiring rabbi, is never allowed much sympathy; Walter in his fifties, is still portrayed as a dream lover, a kind of Jim Morrison figure and Rosalie as the impulsive wide-eyed girl who has only just discovered the alchemical powers of sex. Somehow the relationships didn’t evolve. The spiritual questions they asked each other became repetitive and sterile. Because I’ve recently read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay I kept thinking of the love triangle in that novel – as archetypes the three characters in both novels are very similar – and was constantly reminded of how brilliantly Chabon developed his love triangle and how at the end he did justice to the qualities, the rich and complex humanity of all three. I didn’t feel this with Gottlieb’s threesome. Sol was belittled in the manner youthful rebellion belittles the man in the suit. Walter and Rosalie, on the other hand, were idealised, though it should be said this is a novel that wilfully ignores the prevalence or even presence of petty emotion in our lives. The characters are always in the grip of noble emotion. For example there’s never a suggestion that Walter seduces Rosalie as a means of getting one over Sol even though Gottlieb does such a great job of dramatizing Sonia and Walter as star crossed lovers that it’s hard to believe he could replace Sonia so quickly with another soulmate. How many soulmates do we meet in our lives? Gottlieb always takes an idealised view of human motive. In another novelist’s hands there might be much more darkness and twisted motive in this novel.


The plateauing of the tension and vitality of the plot is partly redeemed very late in the novel by the yearning of the daughter, Maya, herself a rabbi, to piece together and make a kind of holy book of all the fragments of her knowledge of the family history. In a sense she takes up the She'ela and Teshuva game – she asks the questions and waits for the past to answer them. It’s Maya, the daughter, who most lucidly discloses the novel’s central theme, that “Every story contains the secret kernel of an infinite one.”

As I said Gottlieb writes very beautifully – though she can overwrite too – and this is a very impressive first novel. I think whether or not you enjoy it will depend almost entirely on your response to Gottlieb’s highly wrought poetic prose style. Basically I’d suggest you use the “look inside” feature on Amazon and read the first page. That’ll give you a pretty clear idea of how much pleasure you’ll get from reading this novel because it’s much more about the prose than the plot.

[Violet wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

The central thrust of the publisher’s promotion of this novel is that it’s like Nicola Krauss’ The History of Love. However, though this too is a Jewish “history of love”, The Beautiful Possible is essentially a very conventional novel in terms of structure, perspective, character study and plot. It has none of the exuberant architectural mischief of Nicole Kraus’ novel. What prevents The Beautiful Possible from being the playing out of just another rather predictable love triangle is Gottlieb’s poetic prose style (I would guess Michael Ondatje has had far more influence on her than Nicole Krauss) and the rich texture of Jewish spirituality informing the text. One element of this latter feature is the employment of the rabbinic game of question and answer known as She'ela and Teshuva as a motif throughout the novel. One person asks a question of a spiritual nature; another tries to answer it. And this is what all the characters in this novel are doing, asking spiritual questions of each other.

The novel begins on a note of high drama. Gottlieb creates her first triangle, arguably the best one. It’s 1938. Walter is in bed with his lover Sonia while his father in the next room feeds sheet music to the flames in the fire. In a few pages Gottlieb does a fabulous job of creating the kind of sexual intimacy that will for ever afterwards be remembered and missed. When Walter and Sonia get hungry Sonia offers to go into the kitchen to get some crackers. As she does so a murder squad enter the house. Sonia and his father are shot; Walter saves himself by hiding under the bed. The spiritual imperative of the novel is established - to keep the spirit of Sonia alive.

After spending the war years in an ashram in India, Walter arrives in New York where he becomes the study partner of Sol at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Sol is about to marry Rosalie whose father was a rabbi. Walter and Rosalie embark on an affair before her marriage to Sol. So the plot veers dangerously towards a very clichéd set-up –a love triangle featuring an almost impossibly attractive poetic male, a somewhat repressed but kind hearted male and a female torn between convention and rebellion.

I was enthralled for the first 200 pages. Then it went a little flat for me. Partly this was down to Gottlieb’s determination to continue writing about Walter and Rosalie’s relationship in the exuberantly romantic language of youth even when they’re middle aged and beyond. It’s as if the characters are moored in Gottlieb’s youthful romantic assessment of them. (This is perhaps ironicised (is that a word?) by a twist late in the novel.) Thus poor Sol, the steadfast cuckolded husband, the uninspired and uninspiring rabbi, is never allowed much sympathy; Walter in his fifties, is still portrayed as a kind of Jim Morrison figure and Rosalie as the impulsive wide-eyed girl who has only just discovered the alchemical powers of sex. Somehow the relationships didn’t evolve. The spiritual questions they asked each other became repetitive and sterile. Because I’ve recently read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay I kept thinking of the love triangle in that novel – as archetypes the three characters in both novels are very similar – and was constantly reminded of how brilliantly Chabon developed his love triangle and how at the end he did justice to the qualities, the rich and complex humanity of all three. I didn’t feel this with Gottlieb’s threesome. Sol was belittled in the manner youthful rebellion belittles the man in the suit. Walter and Rosalie, on the other hand, were idealised, though it should be said this is a novel that wilfully ignores the prevalence or even presence of petty emotion in our lives. The characters are always in the grip of noble emotion. For example there’s never a suggestion that Walter seduces Rosalie as a means of getting one over Sol even though Gottlieb does such a great job of dramatizing Sonia and Walter as star crossed lovers that it’s hard to believe he could replace Sonia so quickly with another soulmate. How many soulmates do we meet in our lives? Gottlieb always takes an idealised view of human motive. In another novelist’s hands there might be much more darkness and twisted motive in this novel.


The plateauing of the tension and vitality of the plot is partly redeemed very late in the novel by the yearning of the daughter, Maya, herself a rabbi, to piece together and make a kind of holy book of all the fragments of her knowledge of the family history. In a sense she takes up the She'ela and Teshuva game – she asks the questions and waits for the past to answer them. It’s Maya, the daughter, who most lucidly discloses the novel’s central theme, that “Every story contains the secret kernel of an infinite one.”

As I said Gottlieb writes very beautifully – though she can overwrite too – and this is a very impressive first novel. I think whether or not you enjoy it will depend almost entirely on your response to Gottlieb’s highly wrought poetic prose style. Basically I’d suggest you use the “look inside” feature on Amazon and read the first page. That’ll give you a pretty clear idea of how much pleasure you’ll get from reading this novel because it’s much more about the prose than the plot.

[Heather Fineisen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. There are so many tabs sticking out of it where I marked passages, such as , "But does forever refer to a unit of time or a condition of the heart?" to "I can smell your life on your body. Your real life."

This is a love story of people and a love story of words, passionately charged, beautifully told. Gottlieb imagines the life of a young rabbi with such detail for the time period, you can feel yourself in seminary, in shul. Her imagery is lyrical and the characters are so well drawn and oh so flawed. Don't read this if infidelity and sexual content disturb you.

There are a couple of missteps where events happen predictably or just the extreme opposite, so sudden that I had to flip back as I thought I may have missed something. But for a first novel this is most exceptional and a favorite for me. The prose is so descriptive I can still smell the cardamom and see the Ganges. The spiritual philosophy is as heady to the senses. This is a writer to watch.

Copy provided by TLC BOOK TOURS

[Dov Zeller · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Caution: Plot elements revealed in this review!)

This book was recommended recently by a GR friend and I'm glad I read it. I finished it in one sitting, which is pretty rare for me. There were interesting thematic explorations and the writer's agility and movement through time and place was admirable.

What I most appreciate about "The Beautiful Possible" is the unflinching look at cultural and social pressures and internal struggles around relationships. This is a story focused mainly on a female protagonist, Rosalie, who discovers that the love that sustains her marriage partnership is not the same love that satisfies her need or desire for passionate connection. In essence, she is attached to two companions, both men, and each of these relationships offers her something essential that the other doesn't. This isn't a new storyline, but the details are what matter, and what makes this book unique is that Rosalie is a rebbetzin (a rabbi's wife), and the man she loves who is not her fiance/husband is her husband's beloved (I think one can safely say romantically beloved) chevruta (study) partner.

Though a lot of pain arrives in the form of this love triangle between Walter and Sol, Walter and Rosalie, and Rosalie and Sol, this book doesn't focus on the destruction caused by these relational configurations. Instead Gottlieb offers an intriguing look into the spiritual, practical and sensual intermingling of the lives of three people who are all spiritual seekers, and who find inspiration in each other, and who function or dysfunction as a kind of unit.

It was interesting reading this not so long after reading "In The Courtyard of the Kabbalist," because, well, they both have scenes that take place in a kabbalist's courtyard in Israel. It's a curious way to bring the semi-occult into both of the stories, in this case in the form of a few waking-dream-type soliloquies by a kabbalist named Madame Sylvie. I suppose it raises questions of the presence of the soul and of fate. In this case it felt a little extraneous and distracting, but it also makes me think of the literary history of prophecy/augury and that kind of thing in drama and fiction.

A few things I really struggled with in the book.

1) The point of view: This was clearly Rosalie's story. Or Rosalie and Walter's story. But there is something that didn't sit right with me in terms of the balance of focus, and the representation of Sol and the kids. It's as if the kids barely matter to Rosalie. Or, her attachment to them isn't conveyed in a way I could make heads or tails of. Maybe this is a book in which parenthood doesn't matter so much aside from certain losses and paternity issues. But I felt disconnected from Rosalie because I didn't understand her internal workings and didn't get a solid sense of her attachment to her home life. It was clear that their little Jewish community and her role of rebbetzin grew to be an important home for Rosalie.

2) Dialogue: The dialogue is often heavily explainy. In fact, there is a lot of explainy-ness in general in the book, and some repetitive motifs that felt a bit heavy handed. Not my favorite, but clearly it didn't stop me from reading it.

3) The idea that Sol would send Rosalie off to write dvar torah and whatnot with Walter was not quite believable. Maybe if I had more of a sense that Sol was living vicariously through the intimacy between Rosalie and Walter, or in some other way in need of their connection. As it was, it just seemed absurd but without the humor or pathos that might have brought that part of the story into a bit more fullness.

4) I found it upsetting that Rosalie brushed off and felt resentful of her husband's feelings for Walter because she felt her relationship with Walter was more meaningful. It was hard to say if this was coming from the character of Rosalie, or if this was an attitude on the part of the writer. I tend to think there was something going on with the writer, because there was a lot of queer potential (both Sol and Rosalie's best friend were noted as having queer desire and yet neither were ever shown exploring those desires in any meaningful way, and, in fact, they are pretty much mentioned and brushed aside.) Sol lives a full life without exploring his sexuality further than his relationship with Rosalie. At least, that is as far as I as a reader was able to see into his life. He occasionally remembers his one kiss with Walter with longing. It is rehashed enough only to be sort of oddly coy but not addressed in a way that makes it meaningful to the story.

There was a real sadness in Sol's story, a sense that he never really feels full connection in his relationship or his work or his spirituality. Being a rabbi, instead of bringing him deeper into a spiritual life as he thought it would, makes him question his faith in a way that is profound and unresolved. Again, something that has the potential to be meaningful and intriguing, but it's not fully enough explored.

A big yasher ko'ach to the writer for going to rich and uncomfortable places. It is no easy thing to write about a rabbi and rebbetzin, and to show how being a pulpit rabbi can be not only humbling, but intense, exhausting and at times humiliating. To try to show the distance between ones spiritual ideals and joyful learning and the brutality of every day existential pain. I look forward to reading more of her work.

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Beautiful Possible was an easy read and my curiosity about what would happen to the characters kept me turning the pages. I liked the way Gottlieb skillfully braided in a Jewish spiritual theme. But the novel felt out of focus, the characters blurry, and the love triangle unconvincing.

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot-wise, this 3-way love drama is kind of a soap opera. But for me it is transformed into something with a kind of blood and guts, perfumes and spices, and moaning, swooning, and keening I don’t associate with “soap opera” and I think that is because the music in the core of the writing is in a minor key. It is Jewish to its bone marrow. Not just by starting in Germany in 1938 and progressing to lives in yeshivas and shuls, but because I could practically hear the spiraling lines playing throughout.

I found myself so yearning for (my neighbor on my block) Itzhak Perlman’s celebration of Jewish klezmer music In the Fiddler’s House that I reconnected my long-defunct cassette player and listened to Fiddler while reading it—an ecstatic experience.

[cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

It might be a four star but it I need more time to digest it.

It is a truly dense book, intriguing in it’s smart prose and religious and philosophical dialogue. It is definitely as sexy as could be about pure lust driven by some mysterious magnetism or predestination.

Who knows??? This is a recurring question and all the answers are cloaked in different points of view and repeated continually. Ultimately, answers are, maybe....maybe not. Yes and no.
Answers common among the practitioners of the Jewish faith as well as Hindus and Buddhists. Perhaps those answers are the right answer for all of us but it can create havoc and confusion and sadness if applied to every relationship. And for all this to happen in lives of two rabbis, one wife, and 5 children, all who are smart and educated, is even more unexpected.

And it does create a mess. This is a deeply sad book. One I don’t even like to contemplate. Sad because if you constantly look at every side of every issue and every feeling, you will know no peace or security even if those two things may be illusive anyway.

I was pretty well exhausted when I finished and wish I had many people with whom to discuss this book. Usually I am so sure but this one has thrown me.

This is her FIRST novel. What an amazing and unique new voice.

[nikkia neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful, moving, indescribable. I feel like a learned alot about love and the philosophy of life from a rabbi I wish I could met. Amy Gotlieb is a amazing author. I've read so many books, but this one really is one of the books I think book clubs and readers will love too.

[Marji Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding

This novel moved me. Its lyrical dialogue and half finished sentences lingered with me even when I put the book down. I don't know if it would appeal to someone who wasn't Jewish. There are many references to Torah, Talmud, and Jewish holidays because they were so much a part of the fabric of the characters' lives. I was shocked and saddened and touched by the relationships. I'd give it 100 stars if I could.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Body, Mind, and Spirit: a Symphonic Web

She'ela: Can the body ask one question and the mind another?
Teshuva: As God is one, the mind and body are one.

The essence of this heady novel, expressed in the form of She'ela and Teshuva, a rabbinic game of question and answer; Amy Gottlieb sprinkles such couplets throughout her book like pungent intellectual seasoning. I am not Jewish, and know neither Hebrew nor Talmud. But I find myself fascinated by books as steeped as this one in the minutiae of Judaism. I love books that take me into someone else's arcana. But especially so with Judaism, which (to an outsider at least) is a religion of the word, that exists in words and the parsing of words; literature and religion are siblings. Hence the fascination of a dialogue like this:

— "And the words of the Shema transform how we understand God at any given moment," says Sol.
— "As you wish. But God is not a noun."
— "Is God a verb?" asks Sol.
— "God is a parenthetical thought, rabbi. A commentary you add to your days; something to justify the karma of your actions."

In what other religion would you argue the essence of God as a part of speech? It should be clear, though, that Walter Westhaus, the second voice in this dialogue, is by no means orthodox in his Judaism. Religiously ecumenical, and a poet, he started the discussion by claiming that the Shema (the Jewish prayer beginning "Hear, O Israel") is a haiku. Walter is Holocaust refugee who spent the War years at an ashram in India before coming to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York as a guest. There, he is adopted as study partner by Sol Kerem, the most brilliant student of his year. The two strike sparks off each other, though their brilliance will unfortunately be diminished as the two lose touch, Walter moving to Berkeley and Sol settling in as a rabbi near New York.

Walter's question was also about the body. Sex is another ingredient in Gottlieb's novel, and it is treated with the same exuberance as Sol's intellectual passion. It is the sex of the Song of Songs, sex as celebration, ecstatic and holy at the same time. For there is a third member in this seminary triangle: Rosalie Wachs, a rabbi's daughter and Sol's fiancée. The presence of Walter in their lives, with a poet's sensuality and a spirituality unshackled by convention, enchants both Rosalie and Sol, although we know from the first page that they do get married. Rosalie becomes the main focus of the story as the couple move to Westchester County, and have to deal with the humdrum realities of serving as rabbi and rebbetzin of a suburban shul. It is not simply a matter of desire versus duty, though, still less a crude sexual triangle. Sol and Walter have each awakened peak qualities in Rosalie, but those peaks are seldom accessible. Far from fulfilled by her role as pastor's wife (though good at it), Rosalie spends much of the book searching for who she really is.

While not exactly a fantasy, it occurs to me that this novel requires both tolerance and suspended disbelief; literalists will dismiss it, the orthodox would be shocked. But for three-quarters of its length at least it maintains a fascinating flight path between amorous desire, religious awe, and everyday reality. It did not quite carry its power through to the end, seeming 40 pages too long. And I was disappointed that the novel ended more on the level of family secrets than spiritual understanding. So only 4 stars. But this is partially corrected by Rosalie's youngest child, Maya, who narrates the book. She is a delightful character, independent minded and sexually liberated, and as a rabbi herself, she perfectly sums up the novel's fascination with this very special religion, the passionate engagement with the mind in the world of the spirit:

Maya fell in love with the texts, with every word that began as a seed and then flowered into sentences, paragraphs, tractates, commentaries—infinite interpretations that spiral around each other in a symphonic web.

[Rebecca Heagy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book during a cross country plane trip and it was great for that. I never got bored and kept turning the pages but overall, I liked but didn't love the book. It is essentially the story of a love triangle between a married couple and a friend they met when they were young but remained connected to throughout their lives. Despite the interesting religious themes the book started to feel a bit "soapy" to me at times. I felt that Rosalie's and Walter's relationship was fairly well drawn out but I really would have liked to see more about the intimacies of the relationship between the married couple. Aside from their daughter's recollection of her parenting privately dancing together, which was beautifully rendered, I did not get a very deep sense of this relationship and why they loved each other. I think that would have deepened the emotional impact of the book. Still, an entertaining book, when all is said and done

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book offers a complex love story, a ménage a trois, with the horrors of the Holocaust as backstory to the 30+ years relationship of the three adults. Then to add fuel to the flames of this fiery relationship, the 3 adults are steeped in religious ardor. The two married partners are rabbis (or pseudo-rabbis, each exchanging roles during the marriage) and the third partner is an academic in religious/ spiritual beliefs. Does it work as a story? Is it a believable life-long love, by any of the partners? I've grown up with Survivors and among the intellectually religious. Their ardors, post war, tended to be short-lived; that's what the Holocaust did to them. Passions were brief and quickly supplanted. So for me, this novel lacked truth and seemed overly histrionic, especially as the characters aged. As I read, I kept wondering, "why?" and never felt there was a good enough answer. I received my copy from the publisher through edelweiss.

[Marilyn (not getting notifications) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must begin by saying that I received The Beautiful Possible from the publisher in a giveaway that I entered on Goodreads. My review is based totally on my own opinions of what I thought of The Beautiful Possible after completing reading it. Although there were questions about morals right from the beginning of this book I found them easy to ignore as Amy Gottlieb drew my into the story and characters of her novel. This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. I was transported in time and became intertwined into the lives of Walter, Rosalie and Sol as you will be when you read The Beautiful Possible. There were times I laughed, questioned, and cried. Amy Gottlieb did a magnificent job in writing this novel. I hope she decides to write another book since I am a devoted fan now.

[Kylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mostly read genre fiction so this was a bit of a departure for me but I enjoyed it immensely. I would not be surprised to see it on multiple awards list this next year. It is the story of a tangled global web of love without judgement told with a voice that has been filtered through the mysticism of the Torah. I thought that the main characters all came across as imperfect, flawed examples of humanity rather than a series of heroes and villains. The background characters felt two dimensional but I think that was more due to the narrator's view of those characters than a flaw in the writing. I would have liked to see more from Sol's point of view and had more encounters between him and Walter to deepen their relationship.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to anyone who loves literary fiction.

*I received a free copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.

[Hermien · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit too lyrical for me.

[Maria Dolorico · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am going this book 5 stars, even though I think the character who closed the novel was not the right voice to end the novel. The story was so good and absorbing, though, that I really don't care.

I loved the three characters - Rosalie, Walter, and Sol. Imperfect humans just trying to live good lives, while the forces that take up their hearts and minds overwhelm them. They are well fleshed, and I had no problem being sucked into their romances, longings and frustrations. This is a book about the choices we make that don't feel like choices because we'll die if we don't act; this is a book about the sacrifices we make for the people we love or for the rules we must follow. It's about the fullness of life. At the novel's core is mystical Hassidism, Hinduism, and the discipline of studying Orthodox Judaism. Also, questions of faith are at play -- what moves people who are non-believers? How is passion and longing a faith in and of itself?

As for the final voice we hear, perhaps in the last 3-4 chapters: her existence is important, but I don't know that her insight is. It is external to the story, and the story could have ended beautifully with Rosalie's chapters.

[Lisa Feld · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book hits a lot of my sweet spots: It pulls back the curtain to see the private lives of clergy, offers hints of Jewish mysticism and poetry, and takes a historical milieu I thought I knew (conformist, 1950s suburbia) and opens it up in new ways by bringing in an awareness of what else was going on at the time (New Age movements and the seeds of Second Wave feminism).

But my favorite part of this braided saga has to be the generational story. It's fascinating to watch Sol and Rosalie's lives unfold based on decisions they made decades before, to see just how beautiful and damaged Walter remains over a lifetime, and to see the little moments of everyday life, parenting, and careers imbued with drama and significance. And because we get to stay with these characters so long, we also get to enjoy looking forward to how the next generation develops and looking backward to reconsider what we thought we knew.

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this book. The first thing you'll notice is the stunning language. It's a novel, but I found myself trying to memorize the many amazing lines. It's like reading poetry. The beauty of the book doesn't end there; the story itself is delicately woven. The characters are complex but also rich and sympathetic. For me, the layer of theological and biblical imagery was an added bonus. It's skillfully done and enriches the story. It's not an exaggeration when I say that I closed the book and felt like I'd encountered something sacred.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was intense and very thought provoking. I wish I'd read it with a book club. As I read it I wasn't sure how much I liked it, but I think it will stay with me and grow on me as I reflect on all that it entailed.

[Sue Baga · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book quickly. I loved the use of poetry, Jewish language and traditions throughout. The story line kept me curious. I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaway!

[Patricia Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beverly - you were not wrong. Beautifully written.

[Chava · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about this one. I enjoyed reading it. The characters were interesting and compelling and definitely not perfect. The Jewish content was interesting and was an integral part of the novel. I read it relatively quickly, and I liked that there was both happiness and sadness.

I guess I am old-fashioned. It really bothered me that Rosalie was having an affair with Walter, her husband's former chavrusa and still a close friend. I can't believe Sol did not realize something more than friendship was going on, or that if he did, he didn't at least say something when he was dying.

[Mom2nine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not want to set this book down. Usually when a book is called "lyrical" it is code word for wordy without story; this book however, is truly lyrical. The main character, Rosalie, is well-fleshed and her lifetime dilemma, between man chosen and life chosen is well done. Although it is steeped in Torah studies and Jewish faith, much of the story could be any belief system or life choices. A near perfect story, I look forward to more books by this author and hope that this book is not her one hit wonder.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speed reading proved easy in this lyrical tale spanning seventy years about the relationships between a handful of close friends/lovers/family. Helped that it was a weekend, too. :p

Starting in 1938 and ending in 2008, this is the story of three people as chronicled by someone of the next generation. Walter is a German Jewish refugee; an atheist who, after losing his family in the early years of the Holocaust, spends the war at an ashram in India. He ultimately moves to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, where he is chevrusa (study partner) to rabbinical student Sol and paramour to Sol's fiancé Rosalie.

This isn't a tawdry tale about adultery, though relationships flourish, often in secret, between Walter who ends up as a theology professor, and Sol and Rosalie who marry and head up a suburban synagogue. It's a story about people who find spiritual meaning in religious texts and poetry; Gottlieb seamlessly weaves all sorts of literature into her character's lives. It can be enlightening when describing their existential feelings, but a little too flowery when describing sexual liaisons.

I also had a little trouble with how many side characters were overlooked and not fleshed out at all as the narrative trundled forward, but when things *braided* together at the end (recurring motif in the story) it made sense where and with whom Gottlieb focused her story. The narrative came full circle, but in a natural way.

On the other hand, I was wholly intrigued by the depiction of Mastori/Conservative synagogue life in the mid 20th century, not that I think it's much different than it is now. I'm just not in a close knit community myself, but here we have Rosalie understanding the needs of the congregants and Sol suffering from the fact that he's more of a Talmudic scholar than a pulpit leader. Of course, one thing that is different about life back in mid-century was that free spirited Rosalie was half-judged for her independence by her community, whereas her daughter was allowed to become a rabbi in her own right. But none of these characters were over the top in their personalities; the drama wasn't melodrama.

Gottlieb understands the connections between religion, fiction and of course poetry in the search for spiritual meaning. Like me she isn't traditionally religious, and I was intrigued by her term to describe herself as "an iconoclastic Jew." Her characters, too, struggle and rebel while for the most part still maintaining deep ties to Judaism; not so much in the ritualistic way but in how one can explore the texts and ask questions. It's easy to understand how the chevrusa partner can constitute one of the most powerful relationships in your life. This book made me hunger for my own religion.

We cover a lot of history in these 70 years, of course, but ultimately this is a very personal story. Obviously the Holocaust, the founding of the state of Israel and other events play a part, but we see them firmly through the prism of the characters. I'm definitely a fan of this as well; fiction, like religion, is best served subjective, personal and transformative. I look forward to Gottlieb's future work.

[Cindy Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three lives braided together and a fourth that comes from these intersections.

Walter is a German Jewish refugee who escapes Berlin in 1938 after his fiance and father are shot by the Nazis. Grief stricken he boards a ship in Italy bound for Shanghai, but then follows a man in a brown hat and disembarks in India where he works through his grief by smelling and selling spices and spending time at an ashram. He is taken to the US by an older professor who sees great promise in him. In NYC at the Jewish Theological Seminary he meets Sol, a brilliant rabbinic student and his fiance Rosalie, the daughter of a rabbi who steeped himself (and her) in the writings of a Hasidic mystic.

Over the course of decades, these 3 lives are entwined, despite years apart at times. Rosalie, in particular, loves these two men for very different reasons (milk and meat, she says repeatedly). She makes a life and a family with Sol while yearning for Walter and what they'd shared when they were young. Sol yearns for Walter as well for different reasons but never again regains the connection they had at the seminary.

There is so much more to this book than the plot summary I've written, and so much more than the thematic through lines that touched me. This is a book about the life of a 20th century brilliant, Jewish woman, a child born before WWII coming of age in the 1940s and 50s with all of the expectations of those eras. Rosalie is a captive of her times, wanting a traditional life of a rabbi's wife yet never satisfied with the confines of a suburban congregation and the never-ending responsibilities of motherhood. For a while, I wondered, like her eldest son, if she should have been the rabbi, but I realized in the end, that her purview was much wider, much greater.

This book is also the story of the American Jewish community, especially the post-war community of suburban Jews and their shameful secrets and the limits of their religious observance. The author has a broader view of faith and spirituality than that of a middle class conservative congregation and the failings of its rabbinic leader.

All of this becomes evident in the final chapters which focus on that fourth person who embodies so much of the strivings of the other 3 and is yet still in process of becoming the beautiful possible.

The writing itself is beautiful and poetic in parts, insightful as well. There is much scholarship and research in evidence, both historic, literary and theological. The book grabbed me from the very beginning and never let go. It is highly recommended.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts in Germany during Hitler’s rise with a young man named Walter, his fiancee Sonia and his father all living in an apartment. Walter and Sonia are making plans to leave and go to Palestine as it’s not really an ideal place for Jews. Plans are just coming together when Walter’s father and Sonia are killed and Walter finds himself alone. He leaves intending to follow the plan but he ends up in India instead of Palestine. He follows a man in a felt hat off of the boat and his life changes its course.

In New York Rosalie and Sol are engaged to be married. Sol is finishing his schooling to be a Rabbi and Rosalie is looking forward to being a wife and mother. Into this peaceful existence comes Walter who is brought to the Seminary to study by the man in the felt hat who studies religions and wants Walter to be his protege. Walter befriends both Sol and Rosalie. First Sol as they study together and challenge each other. Then Rosalie and she finds so very different from Sol. She soon finds herself falling in love with Walter and he with her. What she doesn’t know is that Sol also loves Walter.

Sol and Rosalie marry and start having children but all is not as they dreamed. Sol is a rabbi but he is not fulfilled by his calling. Rosalie is a wife and mother but she is not fulfilled by this life she always thought she wanted. Both long for the excitement that Walter brought into their lives. He does pass in and out but he doesn’t stay long.

I’m making it all sound so mundane and ordinary but it’s not. The book is full of life and love and complications. It’s got heartache, joy and the minutia of everyday life. People live, they love and they die and it’s messy and real. The writing is magical and full of bits of Jewish mysticism and lessons from the Torah. What I loved most was how real the book was. The only weakness at all in the writing of Sol and Rosalie’s sons. They were underdeveloped and seemed there just so that they could have children. But beyond that minor complaint I truly enjoyed this book – another one that stretched my reading boundaries this year.

4.5