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SEVEN BLESSINGS

Name: SEVEN BLESSINGS
Author: Ruchama King
ISBN: 0-312-30915-5

by Ruchama King ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2003

A tender, enlightening debut that, urban setting aside, reads like a comedy of provincial manners.

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A gentle evocation of love and faith in Jerusalem’s Orthodox community.

There are peevish singles in the “City of Peace,” a small crowd of Orthodox thirty- and forty-somethings, smart and independent to a fault, whose recreational hours are made up of long-drawn-out flirtations with the Torah. It’s enough to drive a matchmaker up the Weeping Wall. Especially Tsippi, who emerged from Treblinka with an extraordinary motive for making matches (“Every couple she brought together—saliva in Hitler’s stupefied face”). Her chief frustration is Beth, a never-been-kissed American who walks away from a string of favorable dates with Akiva, a sensitive house-painter plagued by violent twitches and spasms. King then seems, like a Jewish Jane Austen, to insinuate into the tale a rakish rival for Beth’s halfhearted affection. But Beth and Binyamin don’t hit it off; the latter, a cynical artist who adds Jewish symbols to his canvases in order to increase sales, finds in every potential mate an intolerable aesthetic flaw. The hyper-virginal and hyper-intellectual Beth becomes a Bridget Jones in reverse, obsessing over her nability to desire a man; she breaks down, buys sexy tangerine panties, makes a play for Akiva. Meanwhile, Tsippi and fellow matchmaker Judy begin to find their own marriages wanting; each discovering, largely through renewed interest in Torah studies, a fervent rekindling of the hearth. Much of the story’s strength rises from King’s generous description of Jerusalem, from fig and acacia trees to synagogues and tomb factories. Especially of interest are the numerous passages involving the characters’ performance of Orthodox rituals and their deep pokings-about into theology. Their religious principles keep the tale on the straight and narrow path of 19th-century literature: there’s no sex here, though Akiva does caress Beth’s shoe with obvious yearning while sitting in the park.

A tender, enlightening debut that, urban setting aside, reads like a comedy of provincial manners.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-312-30915-5

Page Count: 256

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2003

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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ALL MY ROAD BEFORE ME
by C.S. Lewis

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PRESENT CONCERNS
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.