Review by Ro Bennett on show 25th March
I found this is a very interesting and heart rending book. It takes the reader into the world of the Ultra Orthodox Hasidic sect of Judaism. The author Pearl Abraham grew up in a Hasidic community, but from her photo she looks very modern and secular, so I wonder what her family and community think about it.
This is from the leaf of the book: Rachel Benjamin lives in an insular environment protected by her family from the temptations and freedom the modern world offers. As the Rabbi’s eldest daughter, Rachel is expected to set a moral example for her brothers and sisters and for the community: she must wear thick tights with seams; she must never wear a bathing suit in public; she is not to read books in English.
But Rachel does read forbidden books: she reads the books of Barbara Cartland, Victoria Holt and Charlotte Bronté, paperbacks bought with babysitting money or stolen from the supermarket, or borrowed from the library that she has been forbidden to join. She starts to wear sheer stockings and to take classes to become a lifeguard. She craves independence but does not know how best to achieve it. As the prospect of an arranged marriage draws nearer, Rachel is torn between the opportunity to leave her family and the realisation that it is not a genuine escape.
This is an extraordinarily powerful first novel. it gives a glimpse into the sealed-off world of the Hasidic Jews, yet tells a universal story.
My heart went out to this girl as she struggles with her situation. The Hasidic sect is very strict and tradition is very important. Her father is a Rabbi and scholar with his own shul and Rachel is the oldest daughter with a lot of responsibility at a young age.
The book starts with Rachel hearing a phone call by her mother in English early on a Shabbat morning. She knows something is wrong because it is forbidden by Jewish Law to use a telephone during Shabbat and the family would normally speak Yiddish not English. It’s 3 o’clock in the morning and her mother is about to give birth to her seventh child and Rachel aged twelve is left in charge of her siblings until her father gets home.
As the book progresses you see Rachel struggling to find her own values and beliefs, struggling with longing and guilt and anxiety as she tries to forge her own identity. She loves reading slushy romantic novels and reads them furtively, she loves swimming and has a battle getting her father to allow her to become a lifeguard by assuring him that there is no mixed bathing so no males would see her in a bathing suit. He only relents because saving a life is very important in the Torah - in Jewish Law. You agonise with her as she struggles with the concept of an arranged marriage a boy of a suitable family who she barely knows. The marriage is put in jeopardy because she has been seen wearing sheer stockings instead of the thick seamed tights and this alone could ruin her chances of a good marriage. I wept when once married and after a little rebellious strop she shaved her hair off as this is the tradition once married. As a rebel myself I could empathise with her kicking against the system and the awful struggles she went through as she didn’t want to hurt her parents and family, didn’t want to be alienated from them and the community, didn’t want to betray her heritage and tradition but longed for her own identity and to be able to fulfill her personal dreams. It’s a very thought provoking book.
Ro Bennett
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