The Romance Reader

by Pearl Abraham Narrated by Suzanne Toren

Overview

Filled with laughter and tears, author Pearl Abraham's moving novel takes you behind the mysterious, closed doors of a Chassidic Jewish community in New York state. The Romance Reader is her absorbing tale of a headstrong, teenaged girl attempting to live in two worlds: one traditional, one modern. Since Rachel is the rabbi's oldest child, everyone expects her to set a proper example for other young believers. But at night, after everyone is in bed, she hungrily reads books-forbidden books about romance and contemporary women. She wonders if the life she reads about in those pages actually exists. Do beautiful, daring women really travel alone? Can they choose their own gallant, broad-shouldered husbands? Soon Rachel's search for answers clashes with the restrictive world she knows only too well. Having grown up in a Chassidic family enables Pearl Abraham to write with poignancy and authority about this intriguing, ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. Her sensitive story earned a chorus of praise from reviewers, and Library Journal named it a Best Book. With Suzanne Toren's compelling narration, Rachel will become your friend, and you won't want to say good-by.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Abraham shows strong talent in her debut novel, the story of a young girl's coming-of-age in an ultraorthodox Hasidic home. The reader soon cares deeply about narrator Rachel, the eldest of six children, who yearns for some of the forbidden fruits of the secular world. Her rebbe father is another endearing character; he dreams of establishing a major synagogue and learning center even while he desperately looks for a 10th man for a minyan for his sparse congregation. Most of the story takes place in a suburban community that receives an influx of Hasidim in the summer months; for the rest of the year, the rebbe's family is the neighborhood curiosity. Rachel is a dutiful child who tries hard to please her mother, an angry woman who belittles her husband's dreams and wants to be part of one of Brooklyn's larger Hasidic enclaves. Rachel's glimpses of the larger world come from casual and often uncomfortable encounters with non-Jews and secular Jews in her town, but especially from romance novels, which she reads secretly. Her seemingly flagrant behavior (she refuses to wear seamed, opaque stockings, opting instead for seamless, and will not wear a cover-up over her bathing suit while teaching young girls to swim) brings shame to her family and endangers a marital opportunity for her brilliant younger brother. Despite her resolve to establish a more independent life, Rachel agrees to an arranged marriage, both to make her family happy and as a first step toward a new existence. When this match goes awry, Rachel's solution is both funny and bittersweet. Abraham's intense, sensitive prose and her ability to create vivid scenes and memorable characters augment this authentic, often disturbing, look at Hasidic home life and beliefs. Literary Guild featured alternate; author tour. (Aug.).

School Library Journal

YA-As the oldest child of Rebbe (Rabbi) Benjamin, Rachel, 12, is expected to follow the traditions of her ultra-Orthodox Chassidic family, and to set a good example for her six siblings. She must be modest, chaste, and obedient, even though, she is bursting to explore the world of her classmates. She wants to be a lifeguard, but wearing a bathing suit is ``improper.'' Her parents protect Rachel from straying from the right-and-righteous way, or bringing shame to herself and her family. Every issue becomes a battle of wills, with Rachel always pushing the limits and sidestepping the restrictions. She surreptitiously obtains some coveted romance novels, which are her only source of sex information prior to her arranged marriage at age 18. Rachel is a memorable character, capable, spirited, intuitive, and difficult. Her mother is brilliantly drawn as a complex, high-strung woman who wants the same kind of life for her daughter that has made her own so unhappy. This fast-paced, easy-to-read, coming-of-age story weaves Chassidic laws and customs into Rachel's first-person narrative. Students will sympathize with the girl's struggle to create a meaningful path that differs from that of her family and friends.-Judy Sokoll, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Hilma Wolitzer

"Wonderful...sheds light on two intriguing mysteries: life within an ultraorthodox Jewish community and the bittersweet passage through female adolescence." -- Newsday

Anne Roithe

"This story, dealing as it does with guilt and gog, is about a journey as brave as Huck Finn's, as difficult as Holden Colfield's, as stark as any I've read." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

From the Publisher

"This story, dealing as it does with guilt and God, is about a journey as brave as Huck Finn's, as difficult as Holden Caulfield's, as stark as any I've read."
—Anne Roiphe, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Wonderful . . . sheds light on two intriguing mysteries: life within an ultra-Orthodox Jewish communiy and the bittersweet passage through female adolescence."
—Hilma Wolitzer, Newsday

"An assured, smoothly written book, narrated in a muted voice that seems to whisper secrets into the reader's ear."
—The New York Times Book Reveiw

"Compelling throughout . . . we don't want to leave Rachel without knowing everything that happens to her for the rest of her life."
—San Francisco Chronicle

JUN/JUL 00 - AudioFile

Toren's versatile voice reveals the soul of the rabbi's daughter, Rachel, as she grows up within the repressive Hasadic Jewish community. Her parents count as "sin" everything from reading a romance novel to wearing stockings without seams. Sounding like a classic Jewish mother, Toren renders Rachel's smothering family with sympathy and drama. The book itself occasionally feels as confining as the orthodox lifestyle Rachel is rebelling against as it takes our heroine from her schoolgirl days into an unhappy arranged marriage. But it succeeds in giving outsiders a look inside this secretive sect, whose dress and ways are as mysterious to outsiders as those of Pennsylvania's more famous Amish. M.C. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170762040
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	11/04/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	519,811

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