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Title: Welcome to Heavenly Heights: A Novel by Risa Miller ISBN: 0-312-30180-4 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 16 January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: glimpse into the lives of Israelis
Comment: Reviewed by Judy Doenges
Sunday, January 12, 2003; Page BW10
Risa Miller's first novel, Welcome to Heavenly Heights is a story of community. In Israel's West Bank, several orthodox Jewish families from America have settled to make aliyah, a return to the land. Among them are Tova and her husband, Mike, who leave their upper-middle-class life in Baltimore for an apartment in Heavenly Heights, hard by the Jordanian border. Tova and Mike and their three children immerse themselves in the lives of the complex's other residents and attempt to adjust to ever-circling army helicopters and bomb searches.
Miller depicts their marginal existence in remarkable prose: The blue Judean sky is like "an eye restraining itself from tears." Miller's fine writing contrasts the emigrants' religious rituals with the stark life outside their homes. There's devotion in almost every moment of the settlers' days; even starting life over in Israel is a sign of religious dedication.
To Miller's credit, the settlers are not homogeneous. Tova's closest friend, Debra, was raised in Appalachia on country music and stories of her absent Jewish father. Now Debra sings twangy versions of spiritual songs. Fiery Sandy has only one child, which makes her an anomaly in the building, and she has difficulty seeing her son for the troubled child he is. Mr. Stanetsky, a Holocaust survivor, is the building's mortgage godfather, a rich immigrant who subsidizes the settlers' payments.
The novel doesn't have a plot per se; instead it charts the settlers' emotional and spiritual adjustments to Israel and to their perceived roles as pioneers. However, what Miller's novel lacks in action is more than made up for by her memorable portraits of people out of sync with both the country they've left behind and with the political reality of their new home.
Judy Doenges is the author of "What She Left Me"; she teaches at Colorado State University.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
Rating: 3
Summary: Episodic novel about the lives of West Bank settlers.
Comment: Risa Miller's first novel, "Welcome to Heavenly Heights," is a series of vignettes about a group of people living in the same building on the West Bank. The protagonists of this novel are American Jews who have left the comfort and security of their homes for a precarious existence as settlers in a disputed area of the Middle East.
Mike and Tova are one of the couples who make the move. She is a bit skeptical about leaving their comfortable home in Baltimore, but Mike will not allow Tova's qualms to get in the way of his vision for their future. Another settler is Debra, a convert who originally came from Appalachia. She is the daughter of an absentee Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother. Debra loves to sing and her sunny disposition is infectious. Less sunny is Sandy, the mother of an only child, Yossi. Yossi has emotional problems and he is always getting into one scrape or another. Sandy and her husband, Nathan, have their hands full keeping their rambunctious son on an even keel.
Miller's book is not political, nor is it linear. There is no plot to speak of. The author acts as a photographer, taking snapshots of the residents of building number four in Heavenly Heights. We get to know these settlers only briefly and we see them as fallible people, each with his or her own issues, who have chosen to risk everything for their ideals.
Miller has attempted a difficult literary feat, and she does not completely succeed. The book has an unfinished feel, and there are several sections that left me merely puzzled as to what the author was trying to say. However, Miller does succeed in depicting the tremendous personal sacrifices that the settlers made when they chose to live in Heavenly Heights.
Rating: 3
Summary: Expected a Better Read!
Comment: I looked forward to the book Welcome to Heavenly Heights by Risa Miller after reading the blurbs on the back of the book. And I fully expected to enjoy this book since it was set in Israel where I have enjoyed visting. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would and seriously doubt I will suggest it to other readers.
The book takes place on the West bank of Israel. There in a volatile setting in an apartment complex known as Heavenly Heights are several American couples who have chosen to make "aliyot" to the promised land. Imbued with a sense of urgency to live in this land some are ill prepared for the reality of the country and their very existence. While the men worship together and seek out jobs, it is the women who form a support group to survive their days and nights in such a viloent climate. The book seemed to me more like interwoven stories depicting each families trials and attitudes rather than one narrative. And while some of the characters and events were more interesting than others, ultimately I felt the book was flat and failed as a good read.
This book is the debut novel of Risa Miller who obviously not only has an intimate knowledge of the land but also the feelings of those who emigrate expecting one kind of life and getting something else instead. But I am still not sure why I didn't enjoy this book more. Even now several days after I've finished the book I can't put my finger on it. Perhaps it is the state of world affairs at this time. Or perhaps it is the news of what life is like in Israel today which overshadowed my enjoyment of this book. For sure Ms. Miller fully depicted the difficulties American families have making "aliyot" although in the end I didn't find her characters all that interesting or sympathetic.
That said I now ask myself if I would I read this author in the future? I am sure I will since I found the writing was quite good, at times even beautiful. I only hope I find her characters in future novels more compelling since I enjoy character driven novels best.
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Title: Seven Blessings: A Novel by Ruchama King ISBN: 0312309155 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 13 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: In the Image: A Novel by Dara Horn ISBN: 0393325261 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Outside World by Tova Mirvis ISBN: 1400041619 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 30 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Coffee Trader : A Novel by David Liss ISBN: 0375760903 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Three Daughters by Letty Cottin Pogrebin ISBN: 0142003484 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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