An unfocused harangue that leaves the reader feeling as little sympathy for the author as for the traditional Jewish institution she attacks: the separation of men and women during prayer. When Broner's (The Telling, not reviewed, etc.) father died suddenly in 1987, she chose to mourn his death in a traditional Jewish way: by attending synagogue daily to say the kaddish, the mourner's prayer. For Broner, a feminist who identifies strongly as a Jew but is not particularly learned, this decision was somewhat arbitrary. She had never been to daily services before, but she selected a traditional minyan (the ten men required for prayer), expecting it to accommodate her completely. It didn't. She refused to be curtained off behind the mekhitzah, the divider separating men and women. In turn, not all the members of the minyan were comfortable with her presence, with her need to be seen and heard. Thus began a battle filled with invective, derisiveness, even physical violence. Some of the men began a second service an hour earlier. They opposed the long-established mixed seating at the Conservative Sabbath morning service and spoke out against full membership for women. Eventually Broner gave up. Although she makes indisputably valid points about the second-class status of women within traditional Judaism, those criticisms are unfortunately obscured by her many childish gestures (``Don't call me lady...Call me doctor,'' she yells at one minyan member). The reader wonders why Broner chose this particular forum, an aging group of sad and sometimes disturbed men, in which to grandstand. As one friend told her, ``Your mistake is that you went into a fish store...and asked for chicken.'' Broner's interspersed references to her feminist and artistic activities—with Mary Gordon, Grace Paley, and others—comes off as simple name-dropping. If Broner had focused more on her father, both during her year of mourning and in this book, she might have achieved more. Full of sound and fury, signifying very little.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-061071-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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