THE CONGREGATION

by Morton with Hal Kantor Levine ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 11, 1985

Another Crusader Cleric, who's a tornado of good works, political and social, and here, a wunderkind in his Detroit temple. But for Rabbi David Benjamin, married (unhappily), personal miseries and soul struggles mount up when he falls in love with Virginia-bred WASP Sheila. Even in David's eight years leading a small temple in North Carolina--at the close of which he's roughed up and plopped in jail after a union march in redneck territory--his marriage to Naomi has not been a completely comfortable one. Naomi, daughter of Michigan Senator Mendez, longed for home and Detroit society. When David is asked to leave his N. Carolina post because of his high political profile, Naomi gets her wish when David is interviewed by Temple Beth Sinai in Detroit, and agrees to become ""interim rabbi."" David is an instant success, and furthermore sails on to fame by walking out on a witch-hunting Congressional committee. By an odd coincidence, Sheila Harrington, career exec for United Motors who's looming large in David's life, is testifying too, before her congressional investigators--on the production of air bags. Both are champs in the matters of fair play and air bags, but their affair is plagued by woes, both before and after glum and ill Naomi commits suicide. What as a rabbi can David offer Sheila? Can David be both a ""man"" and a rabbi? There'll be other troubles: an unpopular rabbinical judgement concerning conversion; a fudging of fund-raising books to save David's brother-in-law from the Mafia; and guilt, guilt, guilt. At the close, there's a public confession and an appropriate wailing-strings fade-out. Like similar Super Priest/Rabbi melodramas, more strutting (and sex) than soul. However, tales of clergymen tempted by the Forbidden continue to attract an audience, and pop novelist Kantor has given this particular effort a commercial gloss.

Pub Date: Dec. 11, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION