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BESS AND FRIMA

Name: BESS AND FRIMA
Author: Alice Rosenthal
ISBN: 978-1-63152-439-4

by Alice Rosenthal ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 21, 2018

Sentimentality and a lack of original material prevent this novel from coming to life.

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A pair of best friends yearns for love and a larger life.

Two young women: one blonde, one brunette; one conventional, one rebellious. Both Jewish; both employed in the Catskills for the summer tourist season. Both 19. Rosenthal’s (Take the D Train, 2012) new novel is set in 1940 and concerns a pair of Bronx-raised best friends. Frima spends the summer working at her mother’s resort; Bess works at another hotel not far away. Frima falls in love with Bess’ handsome brother, Jack, also employed by her mother that summer. Bess strays a bit afield: She catches the eye of Vinny, an Italian labor organizer. Her brother disapproves, but by the end of the summer, Bess has made some radical plans—to move away from home and, even more shocking, move in with Vinny. In alternating chapters, the novel tells the story from both girls’ points of view. That structure doesn’t quite work: It feels a little too on-the-one-hand-and-on-the-other, especially since the characters are set up to be opposites. Worse is the air of sentimentality that pervades the book, overwhelming brief attempts at humor. Rosenthal’s prose is adequate and her subject matter not uninteresting, but the story feels utterly conventional. This terrain is already well-traversed. Her characters never come fully to life as themselves—only as two-dimensional foils for each other. The dialogue doesn’t convince; nor do the characters’ various motivations. We’re told that Bess, for example, longs to leave home because her parents make her miserable. But we’re never shown why or how they do so. Unconvincing in these smaller details, the novel remains unconvincing as a whole.

Sentimentality and a lack of original material prevent this novel from coming to life.

Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-63152-439-4

Page Count: 300

Publisher: She Writes Press

Review Posted Online: May 28, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018

Categories:

RELIGIOUS FICTION

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THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS

by C.S. Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1942

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These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942

ISBN: 0060652934

Page Count: 53

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943

Categories:

RELIGIOUS FICTION

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by C.S. Lewis

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by C.S. Lewis

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BOXEN
by C.S. Lewis

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THE CHOSEN

by Chaim Potok ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 28, 1967

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This first novel, ostensibly about the friendship between two boys, Reuven and Danny, from the time when they are fourteen on opposing yeshiva ball clubs, is actually a gently didactic differentiation between two aspects of the Jewish faith, the Hasidic and the Orthodox. Primarily the Hasidic, the little known mystics with their beards, earlocks and stringently reclusive way of life. According to Reuven's father who is a Zionist, an activist, they are fanatics; according to Danny's, other Jews are apostates and Zionists "goyim." The schisms here are reflected through discussions, between fathers and sons, and through the separation imposed on the two boys for two years which still does not affect their lasting friendship or enduring hopes: Danny goes on to become a psychiatrist refusing his inherited position of "tzaddik"; Reuven a rabbi.... The explanation, in fact exegesis, of Jewish culture and learning, of the special dedication of the Hasidic with its emphasis on mind and soul, is done in sufficiently facile form to engage one's interest and sentiment. The publishers however see a much wider audience for The Chosen. If they "rub their tzitzis for good luck,"—perhaps—although we doubt it.