On Division

by Goldie Goldbloom

Through one woman's life at a moment of surprising change, the award-winning author Goldie Goldbloom tells a deeply affecting, morally insightful story and offers a rare look inside Brooklyn's Chasidic community

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, just a block or two up from the East River on Division Avenue, Surie Eckstein is soon to be a great-grandmother. Her ten children range in age from thirteen to thirty-nine. Her in-laws, postwar immigrants from Romania, live on the first floor of their house. Her daughter Tzila Ruchel lives on the second. She and Yidel, a scribe in such demand that he makes only a few Torah scrolls a year, live on the third. Wed when Surie was sixteen, they have a happy marriage and a full life, and, at the ages of fifty-seven and sixty-two, they are looking forward to some quiet time together.

Into this life of counted blessings comes a surprise. Surie is pregnant. Pregnant at fifty-seven. It is a shock. And at her age, at this stage, it is an aberration, a shift in the proper order of things, and a public display of private life. She feels exposed, ashamed. She is unable to share the news, even with her husband. And so for the first time in her life, she has a secret--a secret that slowly separates her from the community.

Goldie Goldbloom's On Division is an excavation of one woman's life, a story of awakening at middle age, and a thoughtful examination of the dynamics of self and collective identity. It is a steady-eyed look inside insular communities that also celebrates their comforts. It is a rare portrait of a long, happy marriage. And it is an unforgettable new novel from a writer whose imagination is matched only by the depth of her humanity.

Genres: Fiction, Jewish, Family, New York, Religion, Adult, Judaism

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 17, 2019

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update -- This book went on sale today!!! Its $13.99 as a Kindle -- but I know of many libraries --(in our area anyway) -- carry it.
I hope those who read this book enjoy it and see its value. :)


Oh My, THIS BOOK…….is *****FABULOUS*****

NO SPOILERS

I have around 100 close friends I want to say…READ IT,…. (Jewish or not Jewish) — If ‘you’ are reading this review: I recommend it to you!!!

Its brilliant — wonderful — a story that needed to be written!!!!

If you are willing to go in blind —do that! Its a book to read- enjoy and discuss.

Its the VERY BEST book I’ve ever read about the moral complexities of the Chassidic community.

You’ll laugh — you’ll feel sad — you’ll be moved….with terrific characters…and an awesome protagonist.
…….You’ll examine your own thoughts about your own beliefs -traditions - and customs.

It would be so easy to write a longer review —share the details — but I’m holding back —hoping readers will trust me when I say, there is something in here for everyone.


The author, Goldie Goldbloom, is Hasidic. A mother of eight. She reveals the inner world of the Ultra-Orthodox Jews.

The humor is marvelous. The Issues imperative!!!!


Thank you VERY MUCH to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux….. ( I’ll be talking about this book for a long time —telling people in my own community to read it). Thanks to Negalley for all the work they provide for early readers, too.
A special thank you to the author: Goldie Goldbloom: I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just loved this story!
I was so taken with the story of Surie and her family.
At 57 yrs of age, Surie, a Chasidic Jewish woman, finds herself pregnant with twins.
Her ten children are mostly all grown, she has grandchildren and great grandchildren, and her beloved husband Yidel is about to retire.
Surie is afraid for anyone to know and keeps the pregnancy a secret, she’s shocked and ashamed and worried about what people will think.
What I loved most about the story was the closeness of this family and how they lived. I especially loved Surie and Yidel’s story!
This was told with much humor and tenderness and I learned much about the Chasidic community, this one is set in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

I want to thank wandering book seller on Instagram for making me aware of this book and Elyse’s review which confirmed her review!

https://instagram.com/wanderingbookse...

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a deep divide between the world of the secular and the world of the Chassidic Jew and the long beards, sidelocks, black hats, and long coats are just an outward manifestation of it.

It is rare that readers are given the opportunity to peer behind the curtain. Here, Goldie Goldbloom, who is Chassidic herself (and the mother of eight children), writes sensitively and convincingly about this insular community. Her character, Surie, married to the sought-after scribe Yidel, is unlike any I’ve ever come across: 57 years old, a mother and grandmother many times over, a survivor of a double mastectomy—and unexpectedly pregnant with twins.

For Surie, this midlife surprise is a source of great humiliation. The Chassidics, we learn, often stop having sex in their 40s and a grandmother (soon to be great-grandmother) who is pregnant? Well, it’s just unseemly. Worse, it can reflect very poorly on the family, particularly when it’s time to arrange a marital match. Conformity is valued above all.

Goldie Goldbloom spells out what ostracizing might feel like (using another incident): “When the time came to enroll her chidren for the new school year no places would be available in all of Williamsburg. Anywhere. Yidel’s calligraphy would no longer be most popular…A stone would come through their front window. A beard could be forcibly cut off in the back of a moving van…”

The author mixes what most might call small-mindedness with some enviable joys of the ultra-Orthodox. On one hand, books and school learning are frowned upon as a way of turning innocent children’s heads from faith. A woman’s life is totally defined by her family. Just about everything is ritualized. Yet on the other hand, there is a family closeness—children, grandchildren, and in-laws constantly wander in and out of Surie and Yidel’s home to honor the Sabbath or celebrate a holiday and no elderly person is ever left to fend for herself or himself in a nursing home. Rather the elderly are loved and treasured. The community takes care of its own.

Goldie Goldbloom is at her best when the focus is on Surie—her inability to let her husband —with whom she has had a loving 40+ year marriage—know of the impending birth, even into the third trimester; her challenges with a medical community that is tone deaf to her world view and her needs; her desire to self-actualize through learning.

But in developing her plot line, Goldman becomes a bit too ambitious. A subplot involves her son Lipa, who died of AIDS in San Francisco, alone and rebuffed. Although this plot teaches us more about what it’s like to be “different” in this community, there is not enough back story to make the reader invested in Surie’s pain years after his death. Another plot line about Surie’s counseling work in the Williamburg health clinic similarly educates the reader at some remove.

Still, this is a fascinating book, highly readable, with an utterly fresh and unique character struggling with long-held beliefs at the center of it. It is a book well worth reading.

[Jülie ☼♄  · Rating 4 out of 5]

What to say about this book? It's complicated!

Thought provoking, frustrating, disturbing, sometimes uplifting and even enlightening, this book is certainly insightful.

I think the cover blurb says more than enough about the actual story so I won't even try to add to that, except to mention the protagonist and the effect her story had on me.

Living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Surie Eckstein is a respected member of Brooklyn's Chassidic community.
She is a fifty seven year old mother of ten children ranging in age from thirteen to thirty nine, a doting grandmother of thirty two grandchildren, and soon to be proud great-grandmother.
Surie was sixteen when she met and married her husband Yidel who is now aged sixty two and looking forward very soon to some quiet time with his beloved wife. Yidel is planning his retirement from his occupation as a scribe of Torah scrolls. Carefully written on his specially hand prepared skins, his work is in much demand for it's authentic quality.

As a community, they are very much isolated from the wider community in that they observe and practice very strict customs as they live mostly independently within that community.
Surie and Yidel are very much in love with each other and their lives together, and apart from the occasional small transgressions, live in blissful harmony with their family which consists of three generations living on three separate floors of the same building.

With all of their children now grown and starting their own lives Surie and Yidel are excited at the time to come where they have time for themselves and their grandchildren.
So when Surie discovers that she is pregnant...impossibly, against all odds, she is thrown into a bit of a headspin. (So was I to be honest!)
Not just for the obvious implications, but for myriad reasons relating to the Chassidic doctrines, this is just not an acceptable condition for a woman of her situation and age.
Then there are the moral and ethical implications. Suddenly Surie's harmonic life is turned completely upside down and she begins to spiral into a....what, denial???
She takes us with her as she imagines every single thing, every single reason why she should not be pregnant, and yet she can't bring herself to tell her husband, or anyone else. She is alone in a nightmare of her own design and yet she still can't bring herself to tell her secret.
Days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months and still she is hoping for some sort of divine intervention to save her from the torment of this inevitability...this secret.
She knows it is inevitable and she knows all the risks involved, and yet she is stuck in a kind of numb limbo where she cannot see any way out.
Every day she grows bigger and still, (because of their strict beliefs?) nobody says anything nor seems to notice...nor does she. She understands that it will soon be too late to take alternative action, but she also understands that such a course is out of the question anyway.
She is truly stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Where so many everyday small common gestures that we [gentiles] take for granted, are considered to be transgressions to the Chassidic community, it is absolutely mind boggling to imagine what Surie must have put herself through during the course of this situation.
So many do's and dont's during the course of an average day, which change accordingly for every changing circumstance, such as the simple act of touching the hand of a man/husband in front of others is not permitted. Everyday rituals must be adhered to but also change according to circumstances, such as when a woman bleeds, or is pregnant for instance, then the rules are different again and when followed can be deciphered by those witnessing the events...exacerbating Suri's fear of exposure.
So when Surie got pregnant it became obvious to her that by keeping this secret, she was committing many, many transgressions every day, and also causing her unwitting husband and family to do likewise.
"Oh what a tangled web we weave"...
I must confess that whilst reading this book I was wringing my hands a lot with the frustration and angst that Surie was enduring, and many times I felt her despair.
But I also felt a lot of her despair was borne out of ignorance, because of her/their blind faith so much information and resources were either unavailable or unknown to her...forbidden.

This is an enlightening story in many ways, it is also a story that begs many questions as to the sagacity of imposing such rigid doctrines upon innocent people living in a not-so-innocent world.
Trying to embrace her rigid faith in a world full of natural pitfalls, Surie was a square peg, trying to exist honorably in a round hole.

A lot of what I learned from reading this book made me sad, because it seemed that in trying to create an honorable and uncomplicated existence for their people, this doctrine in fact bred an even more vulnerable and complicated community by refusing to acknowledge the condition of human nature.

Another sad example of Surie's culture is that many English words have no Yiddish translation. For example there is no word in the Yiddish language for "please" so they would say it in english when out of earshot or desperate to be heard...because many situations require their own word.
So many specific Yiddish expressions or words I had to look up to find their meaning.

4⭐️'s

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my digital copy to read and review.

[Jaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

On Division is a beautiful mediation on so much: absence and presence, grief and joy, people and history that have been lost and traditions kept over time, secrets that are revealed and secrets that are not, relationships that could have been different and, of course, the always unknowable future. It explores the boundaries of one Jewish family and community, the love, joy and acceptance that is present, and the possibility of serious loss for those who push the boundaries too far. It can be read, also, as a meta-level exploration of post-Holocaust Jewish life. Not those immediate years sometimes conjured by the words "post-Holocaust", but of Jewish life today, when the Holocaust still casts a large shadow for those who remember, but can perhaps still be felt most largely by the absence it created, by all the missing lives, by the people that are simply just… not here. This book is more than worth reading. By all rights, it should become a classic, and I hope that it does.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

The recent movie Disobedience made me interested to learn more about the traditional Jewish Chassidic community. This interest probably ties right into my fascination with cults and such, not to equate the two. And, since our library refuses to get Disobedience the book in ebook, and I found this one on Netgalley..learn I did, so many thanks to the improbably named Goldie Goldbloom. This is a story of a Chassidic community in Wiliamsburg, Brooklyn where a very traditional matriarch of a very traditional family finds herself (to her own and everyone’s great surprise) pregnant at 57. Surie Eckstein is a mother of ten, grandmother of 32 and soon to become a great grandmother. She is tired, heavily overweight and obviously isn’t thrilled about her predicament. And yet she proceeds with the pregnancy (for religious reasons alone she must), but does so in secret. Her weight helps conceal the physical effects and the unlikeliness of it all, takes care of the rest. And yet, because her pregnancy is considered high risk, she can’t do a traditional birth in her apartment and must venture into the real world i.e. Manhattan, but really anywhere outside of Division street is an adventure. It is these adventures and general exposure to the life outside of her small insular community that bring on a sort of late in life reawakening for Surie as she reexamines certain aspects of her life, especially the much contentious treatment of her gay son. It’s a fascinating personal journey of discovery, although in the end it isn’t certain where it goes. But then again my goal was to learn more about the Chassidic way of life and…well, it’s complex and, like most orthodoxy, incredibly restricting. The author did a great job of providing a balance perspective on this way of life…through Surie she explains the significance of a life led in service of one’s community, to have a strong community and familial support and structure, etc. Surie herself is in a four decade long loving marriage, she is close to her children and their children and her in laws even. But the privation their lifestyle requires is brutal. No technology, almost no phones, no music, no art, no movies, no deodorants, no bikes for kids (although toy guns, oddly enough, are permitted) and more. And, of course, as with most such things, it’s all ever so much worst for women, who are essentially treated as breeding machines (and the reproductions rates in the community are quite something), who can’t get an education, hold jobs or at least outside jobs, who must wear wigs and scarves over them. It’s absolutely brutal and primitive. And yet Surie doesn’t come across as oppressed, she simply follows a set of rules, she finds joys within her family. It is a life of value and meaning, just dramatically circumscribed. You will be loved and respected in your family and community if you are exactly like them and follow every rule. The very definition of conditional love. Narrow, potentially deadly set of limits as one of Surie’s children finds out. The communal insularity is claustrophobic, the lack of worldliness is downright alarming. And unlike say the Amish, this is a community right in the middle of a large city, making it even more bizarre. I do understand that for a people who have been treated as terribly throughout times as the Jews, insularity might seem like an appealing way of life. What is more difficult to understand is why a nation that’s been historically ghettoized, would choose to ghettoized themselves, because that’s what life on Division seems to be like, self imposed walls. But at any rate, it was fascinating to learn about and has certainly given much food for thought. Plus it’s a very well written book with a very engaging woman of a certain age protagonist taking the much deserved center stage. Such a good read, thoroughly compelling, essentially done in one sitting, interrupted only by lunch. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

[Jennifer Donnelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of one woman’s struggle for her identity under the weight of family secrets, cultural expectations and gender roles. It is the story of Suri a 57 year old woman from Brooklyn’s strict Chasidic Jewish sect. Suri is both wife, mother, and grandmother to a well respected family in the community and lives a life that is fairly regimented and revolves around structure built by her religious beliefs and customs. Early on in the Story we learn the Suri is pregnant and though well past menopause, she has by some miracle from god conceived a set of twins, because she is so high risk, the clinic she goes to requires her to come every week and through these visits Suri develops a relationships with the staff who run the clinic even though she is really forbidden by her culture not to. Over time she begins to volunteer first as a translator and then as a midwives assistant. It is then that she realizes that she finds great joy. All the while keeping the news of her impending twins secret from her husband of 40 years and her family. The doctors and midwives grow ever more concerned about Suri and her babies health. Suri’s Recognition of her pregnancy recedes further from her thoughts, and past issues in the family simmer to the top causing strife between Suri, her husband and their community. The wrenching climax of this story takes a turn no reader would have expected. This book is a must read.

[Tzipora · Rating 5 out of 5]

“So much of a person’s life is hidden from even her husband, her best friends, her children. A whole world of thoughts and images that no one ever knows about.”

Division is both the name of the street our protagonist Surie and her extended family live on and the central theme of the story. Surie Eckstein is 57 and a Hasidic Jew with 10 children and a husband, Yidel, who is a renowned scribe. Their family is well respected in their very tightly woven Hasidic community in Brooklyn, well respected but as we learn early on, with some caveats. One of their sons left the fold, went off the derech, due to his homosexuality and this causes so much pain both to the standing of their family (and by extension, the kind of marriage prospects the Ekstein children and grandchildren have) but also to Surie as a mother. While trying to come to grips with all that’s happened with this son, Surie discovers she has somehow fallen pregnant. At 57.

Babies are a blessing in Judaism, and so much of Jewish life revolves around the family. Yet Surie has all kinds of conflicting thoughts and is unable to tell even her husband about the pregnancy for reasons that aren’t even clear to her at first. She is worried about what people will think and say, certain this late in life pregnancy will ruin what standing her family has left in the community. She is worried she maybe hasn’t been such a great parent after what happened with her son. Not to mention her age and that it had been so many years since she had raised an infant.

This book blew me away and I began my review with that quote because so much of it is an incredible portrait of Surie’s own inner world, all the thoughts and images in her mind, all the things she can never share or tell a soul. We also get to see Hasidic family life and the inner workings of her marriage to Yigel, a marriage that has been so loving and so well matched in a community where that is so often not the case. Yet even when one has a loving and devoted husband of so many years, it still isn’t always easy to share oneself and one’s inner pain. There is a lot of unspoken pain in this book and the neuroses that spring up from keeping so much inside.

I read an incredible amount of Judaica and this book struck me as so quintessentially Jewish. Not even so much because we see the daily life and holidays and Shabbos celebrations of the family, but for that intense inner focus I mentioned. I’ve always found interesting, for as communal as our religion is, so much of Jewish life is also very private and perhaps there’s something about being a Jew- all the trauma both inherited and personal (Surie and her family are the descendants of Romanian holocaust survivors and this plays a role in the story too) that sometimes makes us dare I say, a bit neurotic? Or maybe just more in touch with all the conflicting emotions and things that make us human. To an extent I’m reminded of Woody Allen, yet Surie’s neuroses are different, female certainly, but as the book progresses we come to see the reasons for them which I think makes this book especially unique. It’s a family story and a Jewish story, yet so profoundly personal and an incredible character study on a level I’ve never seen. Surie is so real. I have never seen an author get so deeply into a character’s head before. It’s almost voyeuristic to an extent just how deep we go. I don’t know that I would’ve ever reacted the way Surie did (I, myself am the “miracle” child of much older parents and know more than most both the judgements that accompanies and the joy). Yet, as I read I came to understand Surie. By the end I was blown away by just how much.

Growing up, I used to wish I could bring another person inside my mind, to have someone understand me so fully and to never be alone. As an adult I’m not so sure I’d ever want that and as I got older I realized just how impossible that would be. Somehow though, that’s exactly what Goldie Goldbloom accomplishes here, with all the good and bad, the pain and the joy, everything inside of and that makes Surie who she is, is laid out before us. I’ve never seen anything quite like it and am truly in awe of Goldbloom’s immense talent. I didn’t always love where the story went or the decisions Surie made yet getting to see inside of her and the reasons why, or the reasons she believed she must do the things she did, was an incredible journey.

There’s so much more I would love to discuss at length about this book but I really don’t want to spoil it and would highly recommend going into this one without knowing much more than the summary given on the book itself. This is a book that is as much about the journey as the destination anyway. And my gosh, what a journey!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for giving me an early review copy of the book!

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well written story of family secrets and cultural expectations which takes a woman down the hard journey of self-examination when she discovers at age 57 she is pregnant with twins. Because she is worried about the acceptance of her community, family and more importantly her husband, she puts off sharing her “good news”.

Surie’s “secret” soon becomes entwined with the unspoken grief she is experiencing over the loss of one of her sons who was shunned for being gay. Almost as an act of rebellion she decides to keep quiet until she can make her husband and family face their loss. She then virtually avoids them by keeping late hours volunteering (or hiding) at the downtown pregnancy clinic. As she helps others, a new awareness is birthed and she begins to question the restrictive and conforming lifestyle of her religious community.

I really waffled with my rating on this one. The insight into NY’s Williamsburg community of Chassidic Jews was completely fascinating. The author did an exceptional job portraying the life and celebrations of these deeply devoted people. But I completely disagreed with Surie’s decision to keep the pregnancy from her husband who seemed like a kind and loving partner. I felt the excuses she told herself did not warrant the continued deception.

It was an intense book to read and I was not completely satisfied with the resolution in the final chapters. It felt incomplete, which could very well have been intentional. But it really down-leveled my reading experience.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Mary Lins · Rating 5 out of 5]

“On Division”, by Goldie Goldbloom, immediately intrigued me due to its unique story line (a 57 year old grandmother finds herself pregnant with twins) and setting (among Chassidic Jews in Williamsburg, Brooklyn). Good novels educate us with facts, perspectives, and story lines. Great novels give us all that, AND characters that live on in our hearts and minds. "On Division" gives readers a character unlike any other in Surie. 

I was enthralled (and often appalled, to be honest) learning about a culture/religion that I am unfamiliar with. Being exposed to characters like Surie ,and her husband Yidel, and their family and insular community gave this reader an understanding of what Chassidic families and communities have in common with any other community based on religion and/or culture. Love, joy, and sorrow, are universal, aren’t they? Goldbloom is particularly eloquent when her beautiful prose described the rites and practices surrounding a death. 

I love “fish out of water” stories as they allow me to look at my world through others’ eyes; imagine not ever watching TV, not speaking English well, and not knowing about AIDS or what a “jogger” is! Ponder how significantly “the media” affects our lives, our viewpoints, and our reactions to the world at large. What if we didn’t get our information/education that way? What if we were educated only from within the family/religion? What if a seemingly minor infraction could get you ostracized permanently from everyone you know and love? Would we feel resentful and rebel?Would we be happier, feel safer? Would we be at a disadvantage? “On Division” doesn’t answer these questions, of course, but it provides plenty of food for thought. Goldbloom doesn’t over explain Chassidic practices, beliefs, or lexicon in “On Division”, so I did some research on my own and found it fascinating. 

Goldbloom is a skilled writer; I really did feel like I was “in the head” of Surie throughout, even though her world is so different than mine, and her decisions often baffled me. “On Division” is well worth your time.

[Cheryl Sokoloff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surie Eckstein is a 57 year old woman, concealing a pregnancy, of twins, not only from her husband, Yidel, but also from her nine (living) children and over thirty grandchildren. Surie knows  it  is selfish for her to want to keep the babies because, having them, will only bring shame to her family, revealing to the community the intimacy between herself and Yidel. But what option does she really have? An abortion is forbidden. As the days and months pass, it becomes easier for Surie to keep her secret then to share it with Yidel and her family, sparing herself (and her family) from the shame she is sure they will receive. Surie bonds with the midwife, Val, who coincidentally was present, for all of her previous  deliveries. This unusual bond between the two women, allows Val a rare opportunity to see the  Chassidic community close up, and it permits Surie to step outside her community for the first time in her life, conquering a fear that always existed within her. Author Goldie Goldbloom describes in brilliant detail the Jewish holiday celebrations, Division Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the sad fate of what happens when an individual does not fit the mould of what is expected to be accepted in Chassidic communitiesl. Community can comfort but as the story shows it can be something to fear as well. We ALL have to be open to, and accepting of, all individuals. Thank you #netgalley and @fsgbooks for giving my the opportunity to read #ondivision, 5 stars. @goldiegoldbloom

[Rachele Riccetto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surie ha 57 anni, è madre di dieci figli, nonna e quasi bis-nonna, quando scopre di essere rimasta incinta.
Vive a New York, nel quartiere di Williamsburg, ed è un membro della comunità chassidica, e il modo in cui vive la sua vita è molto simile a come un tempo vivevano gli ebrei ortodossi nell’Europa dell’Est.
Quando scopre di essere incinta, e per giunta di due gemelli, è un vero shock, e la prima cosa che prova è vergogna: cosa dirà la comunità quando scoprirà che una donna della sua età ha ancora rapporti con suo marito? Cosa diranno i suoi stessi figli?
Surie decide così, quasi inconsciamente, quasi contro la propria volontà, di nascondere la gravidanza a tutti quelli che la circondano, e questo segreto che si porta dentro farà tornare a galla un altro dolore profondo, un altro segreto di cui la famiglia non parla, un altro figlio andato perduto.

Questo libro racconta una storia difficile, di sofferenza, di dubbi ed errori, di paure e solitudine, e lo fa attraverso una voce unica, di un personaggio in evoluzione, in una mondo che sta cambiando.

C’è dolcezza e malinconia nella prosa di Goldbloom e, proprio come Surie, tenta di trasformare in gentilezza una storia di sofferenza.

Recensione sul blog:

https://legolegimus.altervista.org/ma...

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a MASTERPIECE! Not a story, but the journey of Surie, a Chassidic woman living a sheltered life in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Due to extraordinary circumstances( no spoilers!) she finds her life "on Division"( the street where she lives in Williamsburg), in tormented " Division" as she discovers a strange, enticing world beyond her tiny apartment and everything familiar.
Each time I put it down, I was drawn back to the words; to Surie, her family, her discoveries, struggles and triumphs.
To say more is to ruin the taste and joy of a treasure.
Just get a copy and read!

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always fascinated to read about the lives of the Chassidim, especially in the Williamsburg part of Brooklyn. Their lives are so restricted by so many rules that they have to live by.

In the story, 57 year old Surie Is horrified to discover that that she is pregnant with twins. She seems more concerned about what her community will think about this than anything else. She believes she and her family will be ostracized by the community because of this, because it is so out of the norm. For some reason, which is unfathomable to me, she cannot bring herself to tell her husband, Yidel, about this. Instead she goes into Manhattan to high-risk maternity clinic every week to see her midwife, Val, and eventually becomes engrossed by the running of the clinic to the point where she actually becomes a part of it, helping other Chasidic women navigate the intricacies of a world that they are generally not a part of. Meanwhile at home nobody notices that she is pregnant, even her loving husband who sleeps next to her every night. The only person in her world who figures out that she is pregnant is her blind mother-in-law. Honestly the fact that her husband can’t tell that she is pregnant but his blind mother can stretches the credibility of the story. But I suppose at times some people just refuse to see what is right in front of them. This is one of the parts of the story that I found frustrating. I could not understand why Surie could not tell her husband that she was pregnant. She knew he would welcome the pregnancy even though she herself could not. Maybe that is why she couldn’t tell him. Also during her pregnancy, Surie keeps having visions of her son, Lipa, who committed suicide because he was rejected by his family for being gay.

Surie undergoes a lot of changes during the story and not just because of the pregnancy.
She begins to question some of the restrictions of her life. She gets a taste of the outside world and finds it fascinating. When tragedy strikes, she and her husband have to come to terms with their lives together.

Beautifully written with complex characters, this book gives the reader a glimpse into a world which we will probably never understand or experience.

A definite recommend.

[Staci · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first novel I’ve read by Goldie Goldbloom. It won’t be the last.

Surie Eckstein is unexpectedly expecting at the tender age of 57. Children are beloved and cherished in the Chassidic culture. They are considered a tremendous blessing. However, the fact that Surie and her husband, Yidel, are still passionate and that they allowed this to happen would be considered reckless and lacking self control. It’s unexpected and unconventional within a community that values sameness and adherence to rigid expectations.

I learned a lot about the Chassidic community. The importance they place on family and tradition is commendable and endearing. However, the cruelty with which they treat and discard those that do not/will not/cannot conform is disturbing.

Highly recommend this one.

[Floflyy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quelques longueurs notamment concernant les états d'âmes du personnage principal qui reviennent tout au long du roman sur le fait de dire ou non à son mari qu'elle est enceinte.
Toutefois, cela est nécessaire pour immerger complètement le lecteur dans la vie de cette femme et mère de la communauté hassidique, des relations touchantes se développent entre les personnages et abordent des sujets contemporains dans un communauté qui semble totalement déconnecté des réalités.

[Frieda Vizel · Rating 1 out of 5]

In ‘On Division’, the lack of real familiarity with the Williamsburg Hasidic community (which the author clearly does not come from) leads to a deeply offensive depiction of Hasidic women. I write this review from the perspective of an ex-Satmar and tour guide in hasidic Williamsburg.

The book paints a world that is extremely provincial, backward, and where relationships between couples are the central connection in life. All of these misunderstand this community.

For instance, in one vivid passage, Williamsburg is rendered in colorful details as some pastoral countryside where four generations live in one home, and the family yard houses thirty chickens.

“The Ecksteins raised their own chickens. They didn’t eat red meat. The poultry lived in the backyard in a large coop Dead Opa, Yidel’s father, had built in 1951. He’d had chickens in the displaced persons camp in Austria too. The birds picked worms and rusty screws out of the dry, pale gray dust. The Ecksteins owned twenty-five chickens at a time, thirty before Rosh Hashanah, but never a rooster. On Sukkos, when Tzila Ruchel, Surie’s oldest daughter, had a sukkah that stretched across the entire front of their house and the doors opened and shut constantly, the chickens wandered out into the road and caused collisions.”

In reality, we are in grimy Brooklyn, New York! Williamsburg is a gritty urban area, a polluted part of New York. The Hasidic people are usually city natives, New Yorkers, able to navigate the subway to Chinatown and bargain on the price of an imitation Coach bag. Williamsburg looks out not at a thin strip of water that is the East River, because that’s mostly obstructed by fenced-off shipping and manufacturing areas. The view is of Manhattan. The Manhattan skyline looms over many Hasidic-occupied apartment complexes. When you walk on Division you can see the Freedom Tower.

The issues with the setting, however, aren’t simply the details per se, but how the book cumulatively paints a portrait that is extremely insulting. It brought to mind the way western travel writers would depict other cultures as savage and exaggerate how “uncivilized” these “unusual” peoples were. This is especially bad when Hasidic women are shown to deliver babies in muted pain, without ever knowing the first thing about their own bodies. Surie, a 57 year old grandma, has no knowledge of reproduction, despite having had many children herself. Only when she is pregnant in her fifties does the midwife educate her:

“You know this already, but most babies are born headfirst, Mrs. Eckstein. If they come with their feet first, it is known as a breech.”

The nurse goes on to lecture this passive woman on what hemorrhaging means.

“You’re at risk of hemorrhaging. I’m talking to you. Can you pay attention, please? Blow your nose. This is not the time to fall apart. Do you know what hemorrhaging means? Bleeding. To death.”

How utterly condescending! Women in this community have many children and don’t need to be talked down like this. They know plenty about things like hemorrhaging.

Not only does the nurse explain this and folate (which my Hasidic mother told me to take as soon as I called to tell her I was pregnant) but the Hasidic character can’t comprehend it in English.

“What is folate?” she’d asked, translating the midwife’s sentences slowly into Yiddish in her head. Which was still full of the wedding. ‘What is a neural tube?’ ‘Neural tube defect,’ Surie muttered in English, before reopening her purse and placing the bottle on the concrete. The vitamins weren’t kosher. She’d have to buy her own at a pharmacy outside the community. They’d stare at her scarf, her clothes, giggle about her accent, but at least they wouldn’t spread gossip.”

So, not only does Surie have to be educated by her midwife, but her trip to buy the vitamins will be a crushing indignity as others will, “giggle.” This is all ridiculous. It is all ridiculous. There are vitamin shops in Williamsburg. No one giggles at Hasidic women in NYC. New York City, let me remind you, is the home of weirdo central.

It is the worst when we learn that Hasidic women give birth silently!

“During her labor with Chaim Tzvi, Val had told her she should make sounds. Heck, she could go ahead and scream if she thought it would help. Sweat broke out under Surie’s turban and streamed from her body. The midwife had encouraged Surie to moo or bellow or cry. Something. Anything. But Surie had remained silent until almost the very end. ‘What is it with you women?’ Val had asked.”

I will tell you what it is with these women: They scream. They are humans, not dead Stepford fantasies. Someone who understood the community AND was a sensitive writer would not have depicted Hasidic women as these religious ghosts.

The parts that depict the community as “positive,” are bad too, because they are not plausible or the real appeal of this way of life. We are shown in Surie’s life, however repressed, a husband who dotes over her and for whom life revolves around their romance. In one scene, the entire family is in the Eckstein house for the Chanukah lighting, but Mrs. Eckstein and her devoted husband are locked in the bedroom with one another! [!]

See, the problem with finding redemption in romantic love is that it misrepresents what is so powerful within this community. In our modern atomized world of nuclear families where we project all the needs for intimacy and comfort predominately on our sole sexual partner, the Williamsburg Hasidic community is a large, robust network of support. A woman like Surie, who had lived a simple life for many years, would not be rejected by her daughter for being pregnant, and would not singularly find ultimate solace in her husband.

In an authentic experience of a “high-risk pregnancy,” the community would have mobilized to do whatever it could to connect Surie with a good doctor. This mobilization, while smothering and invasive on its nastier side, demonstrates the tremendous social support that makes this community shine. The story Goldbloom tells fails to imagine subversive social connections, the quirky or surprising personalities within the community, and the ways in which a Hasidic woman is rewarded for her sacrifices: with support not just from one man, but from a whole meddling village. The soul of what makes this unique world special is missing.

From my blog: https://friedavizel.com/2020/03/11/on...

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

On Division by Goldie Goldbloom is a fabulous religious-themed literary fiction piece.
This novel is focussed mainly on Surie- a grandmother (soon to be great-grandmother), mother, wife, and fixture of her Chasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklynn.
Surie, much to the shock and horror she thinks, finds out that she is pregnant with twins.
This life-altering, seismic revelation shocks her to her core and brings up fundamental questions that she realizes were there all along during the 40ish years she has been married to her gentle Yidel.
This “awakening” and the aftershocks that occur afterwards is where this author takes the reader.
Being a part of something so personal and so raw feels like you are looking into your own soul, and maybe you are.
The struggles that she and Yidel face, in some form or another, we all face no matter what religion or geographical location we inhabit.
The imagery of the location and the descriptions of the raw emotions that the author paints for the reader are stunning.
I truly enjoyed this book, and honestly wished it could have been twice as long.
Truly amazing read.

5/5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

[Erika Dreifus]

The marketing copy summarizes this book as follows: "Through one woman's life at a moment of surprising change, the award-winning author Goldie Goldbloom tells a deeply affecting, morally insightful story and offers a rare look inside Brooklyn's Chasidic community." All true, and I'm grateful to have been provided an complimentary copy. This early pre-publication version includes placeholder pages for family trees, which I suspect would be helpful (unless I missed the mentions, I don't believe that we are introduced by name in-text to all of her 10 children—the story features on only a few of them). The pacing also perplexed me a bit; like some of the other characters, I found myself becoming impatient with the protagonist's refusal to divulge key information to her husband. The acknowledgments section references versions of the story in earlier (shorter) forms, and I'm intrigued enough by those mentions that I may seek them out.

[Dexter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Einfach wunderbar, vermutlich ziemlich besonders, und das von Anfang bis Ende.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.

On Division follows Surie, a Chassidic, 57 year old, soon-to-be great grandmother, who discovers she is pregnant. I can't begin to imagine being pregnant at that age, and I knew nothing about the Chassidic community, making me excitedly curious about Surie's story. Books that expose you to new situations and unfamiliar cultures have the potential to be the best reads.

There was so much I enjoyed about On Division. The secrets, though frustrating, became more understandable as I learned about past events, and the family and social pressures weighing on her. Traditions are important here, with characters holding on to many, moving on from others, and finding the courage to follow their hearts.

While not a book I'll ever forget, I had trouble with the structure. The writing often felt disjointed and irregular. The story felt incomplete. This may have been intentional, but it did affect my enjoyment.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surie is pregnant with twins. Surie has had a double mastectomy. Surie has been on tamoxifen for several years. Surie is able to hide her pregnancy. Surie lives in an ultra-orthodox community in Williamsburg. SHE IS 57 YEARS OLD. So, with this hodgepodge of situations I found it incredibly difficult to make sense of the plot of this book.

Yes, Surie is a wonderful wife and mother, deeply in love with her husband Yidel. She mourns for her lost son. She is devoted to her religion.

I certainly learned a great deal about the unique community in Williamsburg and enjoyed that aspect of the book.

I must admit to looking up some of the science surrounding this bizarre pregnancy and that questioning took away a great deal of my enjoyment.

Thank you NETGALLEY.

[Caroline Igra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this gorgeous, beautifully written tale of an older woman, who, faced with a sudden, and unexpected, change in life, reconsiders her own very constrictive life as an ultra-orthodox Jew in Williamsburg. While tormented and trapped by her circumstances she is simultaneously appreciative and, in many ways, adoring. Absolutely wonderful exploration of how we deal with what life dishes out.

I was fortunate to read this book pre-publication.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was captivated and utterly rewarded by this tale of Surie Eckstein—her inner self and her outward face, her transformation and simultaneous steadfastness, her ambivalence and dedication, her wry mind and tender heart. It is written so precisely, in an emotionally limber style that accentuates the vividness of Surie’s thoughts, her voice. I’m in awe of Goldie Goldbloom’s many talents, and of this searching, elegant book.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an Advanced Ready Copy @ a library conference in Washington DC and read it on my way home. I honestly couldn't put it down. I thought it was well written and the author did an excellent job of presenting a thorough and detailed picture of the Hasidic community; the good and bad parts.

[Lazy_bookelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nicht nur ein hochinteressanter Einblick in eine für mich fremde Lebenswelt, sondern auch eine wunderbar erzählte Geschichte, die mich sehr berührt hat.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surie Eckstein ist 57 Jahre alt, vielfache Mutter und Großmutter - und schwanger. In der orthodox jüdischen Gemeinde von Brooklyn hoch angesehen und ständig von Menschen umgeben, fühlt sich Surie plötzlich völlig allein. Nicht einmal Yidel, mit dem sie seit 40 Jahren glücklich verheiratet ist, wagt sie ihr Geheimnis anzuvertrauen - viel zu groß ist die Angst vor den Konsequenzen inmitten einer Welt, die nach strikten Regeln lebt und keine Verstöße gegen diese duldet.

Fakt ist: Ich liebe Bücher, die mir neue Perspektiven eröffnen und es schaffen, Unbekanntes so zu erzählen, dass ich mich als Teil des Ganzen fühle. Die Autorin Goldie Goldbloom lebt selbst als geschiedene Chassidin mit ihren acht Kindern in Chicago und ist zudem LGBT-Aktivistin - nicht unbedingt das Idealbild einer orthodoxen Jüdin. Ihr Roman erzählt kritisch, aber ohne zu verurteilen von dem Alltag, den Traditionen und den harschen Regeln der Gemeinde und beschreibt, wie es gelingt sich selbst zu verändern, ohne seine Wurzeln zu verleugnen. Mit Suri hat die Autorin eine unvergessliche Frauenfigur geschaffen, die man von den ersten Seiten an ins Herz schließt - ihr Inneres und Äußeres, ihre Verwandlung und gleichzeitige Standhaftigkeit, ihre Ambivalenz und Hingabe beschreibt Goldbloom auf eine präzise Weise und gibt der Hauptfigur somit eine ganz eigene, unverkennbare Stimme. Es ist die Geschichte einer Frau, die nicht die große Rebellion wagt, sondern vorsichtig und bedacht die Grenzen ihrer äußeren und inneren Welt auslotet.

Ein überraschendes Highlight für mich und eine ganz klare Leseempfehlung!

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

What a story! I have read a few books about the Chassidic community but this one touched a special place in my heart. Most of the other books that I have read have had the person leaving the Chassidic community they belonged to and moving to a more secular community. In that respect, On Division was different. On Division by Goldie Goldbloom was recommended to me by a friend on Goodreads. I was so glad that I decided to listen to that friend. Immediately upon reading my friend's review, I reserved On Division at my library and was able to borrow it within a couple of days. Once I began reading On Division I knew that I was going to like it. Teaching at a Jewish day school where a good many of the teachers are observant I was intrigued by this book. I also live close to Monsey and New Square, two Chassidic communities, so I have observed Chassidic men, women and children from a distance for years. There were parts of On Division that had me laughing out loud, some parts made me shed a few tears and other parts left me wondering. Goldie Goldbloom was brilliant in the way she made the characters in this book really come to life. I felt the love they felt for one another, their sorrow, their challenges, their friendships and their hard decisions they were forced to make. Although this was a work of fiction, the author, Goldie Goldbloom, a Chassidic woman and a mother to eight children, was able to bring this story to life in an authentic way and was able to give the reader a glimpse into the Chassidic way of life.

The main character, Surie Eckstein, was a fifty-seven year old mother of ten children (nine living), who resided on Division Avenue which was close to the East River in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She lived in a shared house with her husband Yidel. Her children ranged in age from thirteen to thirty-nine. Surie got married when she was sixteen years old and was now a grandmother many times over and was soon to become a great grandmother. Surie and Yidel shared their house with Yidel's parents who immigrated to the United States after World War II from Romania and with their daughter, Tzila Ruchel and her family. Each family lived on a separate floor. Yidel, sixty-two years old, was a torah scribe and was planning to retire soon so he and Surie could start to spend some quiet, peaceful time together. Surie and Yidel had a very loving marriage of over 40 years. Both Yidel and Surie were respected greatly in their community.

Surie was sad though. Something had happened in her life that she was not allowed to talk about. Surie and Yidel lost their son Lipa, at twenty-two. Lipa knew that he was homosexual early on in his life. His choice of yumakahs and how he chose to wear his hair went against the Chassidic "norms". When he finally confided in his father about his sexual preferences, the community elders decided to oust him from the community. Lipa was homosexual and had the AIDS virus. When a member of a Chassidic community is thrown out they are considered dead and cannot be spoken about again. All photos of that person are removed. All evidence of that person ever existing are eliminated. Despite all this, Surie was secretly mourning her son and unhappy and mad at Yidel for never talking about Lipa with her. Lipa died in a cruel and vicious way. He was not allowed to even be buried in the Jewish cemetery they had plots in. Surie and Yidel had to bury Lipa in California. Loosing Lipa left a big hole in Surie's heart that she had to try and mend on her own. This tension of not being able to talk about Lipa was growing between Surie and Yidel and pulling them apart.
Surie had another secret though. She was fifty-seven years old and pregnant with twins and she could not find a way to tell Yidel. Surie was embarrassed, worried and terrified about this pregnancy. What happened to Surie as she navigated her way through this pregnancy was uplifting, surprising, sometimes down right funny and enlightening.

On Division by Goldie Goldbloom was a wonderful book. As she depicted the challenges Surie must face as a member of her Chassidic community we learn about her secrets and her feelings and about how she thinks she will be seen through the eyes of her family and the community she was embedded in. This was a well written book and really opened my eyes to what life is like within a Chassidic neighborhood. On Division by Goldie Goldbloom will make you feel good. It is a book for Jewish and non-Jewish people. Surie's character and her story will stay with me for a long time. I highly recommend this book.

[bellasong · Rating 3 out of 5]

A big thank you to FSG for the arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Surie is incredulous and finds that she is pregnant—impossible after going through menopause and is now the ripe old age of 57. But as she believes that it is impossible for her to be going through this, she rebukes the ideas of other faiths, and believes that abortion is murder. Very much stuck in one place throughout the majority of her life.

A woman like Surie is still extremely childish at an older age. She needs to think less. There’s a lot of reminiscing going on here. Surie is eagerly blind to her faith and faith alone. Personally, I think it gets in the way of her true feelings. She is often confused as we ramble through pages and pages of her worries and concerns. I kept seeing many, many situations of regret that Surie has come to feel, especially after the death of her gay son, Lipa.

“This child was fascinated with bodies. She must never go near a public library. It would be the ruination of her.”

Good God, is it really that bad to educate yourself when you know nothing about a topic? There are a great many examples of negativity that follow Surie, including horrible thoughts of her family every two pages. As much as there are positives, there is a negative to follow. You can’t escape this kind of perspective when it’s evidently splayed out on every page, emotionally demanding all your attention.

It’s also sometimes difficult to make out whose perspective is being followed. Sometimes it is Surie’s, then Yidel, and the midwife as well, Val. They jump around depending on the intimacy of the view that the reader receives. They seem to be fine in never experiencing change. And that is a certain loss that they will never understand. You can be loved and have a future too, instead of relying on family and community strangers that will say bad things about you the moment your back is turned.

Maybe I’m giving this book a bad rating because I don’t agree with their religious views. Or maybe it’s tied in with the fact that Surie is already a failure of a parent, both a good and terrible mother, and yet she does nothing to change it. If there weren’t so many things that were forbidden to her community, then maybe Surie and her daughters wouldn’t have to feel ashamed of how they react and approach the real world outside their faith.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

ON DIVISION is an extremely culturally accurate (to the best of my knowledge, as I'm not Satmar or even Chassidic) tearjerker about a Chassidic woman, Suri, feeling conflicted when she discovers at 57 that she is expecting---and expecting twins, no less.

I enjoyed the accuracy, so rare in literary works published for mainstream audiences, and I found many of the customs described that are very community-specific (not simply Orthodox Jewish, which I would already be familiar with) to be intriguing. I liked that this is a happily married woman. I loved Suri's MIL and granddaughter, and staff at the women's clinic, too. I thought it was interesting how Goldbloom wove both positive things about Suri's world and communal challenges/issues into the story. She has a gift for evocative description and lingering imagery--I envied her skills with words. The passages about Suri's relationship with her late, beloved son are moving, and I loved the way she doesn't tell us what to think--she shows us Suri's feelings and lets them teach us empathy.

However, the book's pacing seemed off too me. Slow-going at first, the final third of the book covers too much ground too fast. More importantly, I had a lot of problem seeing the woman on page one as the same person who would have done the things she does throughout the book--the psychology didn't seem consistent to me. I also found some of the side plots (especially about the 12 y o girl) important enough to have their own book--and they distracted a bit from the central narrative, which do me wasn't sufficiently developed. Because the main character successfully conceals her pregnancy for the entire duration, it deflates a lot of the potential conflict with her husband--more pages are spent on her imagining his reaction than us seeing it. She's upset with how he reacted to their late son's molestation, sexual identity, and ultimate suicide. But this gets dispenses with all-too-quickly on the final pages of the book.

It was hard for me to enjoy the book because I found it so overwhelmingly sad at points and I just wanted her to tell her husband about the pregnancy. ON DIVISION isn't my preferred genre, though, so I can't penalize the book for that. However, I really admire what Goldbloom is doing here and see she has a lot of skill with words. I am looking forward to seeing what Goldbloom writes next.