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Title: The Outside World by Tova Mirvis ISBN: 1-4000-4161-9 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 30 March, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Satire of Religious Jewish Life
Comment: I read this book as a satire of Orthodox Jewish Life in America. Everything she writes about it is true, but so exagerated! The author knocks both the Boro Park types and the Modern Orthodox equally. I grew up in a Modern Orthodox world and now live in the "black hat" world, and her descriptions are accurate down the last detail, but highlight the most negative aspects of both communities. The majority of people from both communities are committed to Judaism and to their fellow human, not people merely observing the laws from rote with no feeling or spirit.
There are no "heroes" in this novel. Unlike The Ladies Auxillary, where Batsheva was good and everyone else in Memphis portrayed as bad, in this book, each character epitomizes the worst characteristics of the typical stereotypes: Baruch, the insensitive "nouveau frum" son; Joel, who wants to blend in the outside world; Naomi, the spineless peacemaker; Shayna, who cares only about being accepted; Ilana, the rebel; Tzippy, who has no concept about why we are religious; and of course, Hershel, the typical dreamer on the verge of making it big! Of course I know people like these characters, but Tovah Mirvis has drawn a caricature of them, exagerated to bring out the worst. Just as her religious characters in The Ladies Auxillary are missing the spirit, the passion and the dedication to their religion, with the exception of Naomi and Baruch, these characters live it without any idealism or involvement.
The two communities have different values and priorities, but the differences are exagerated as well. They both keep the same Sabbath and holidays, the same laws between fellow human beings, the same basic Kosher laws, the same marriage laws, etc.
The book is extremely well written, and I have a hard time putting it down. Enjoy the book, just remember not to take seriously this portrayal of Orthodox life!
Rating: 5
Summary: Insightful and Laugh-Out-Loud Funny
Comment: I loved Tova Mirvis' widely anticipated second novel, The Outside World. With great wit, deep insight, and gentle humor, Mirvis has created a living and breathing cast of characters who invite the reader to share in their touching and often laugh-out-loud funny journeys toward self-realization. The book brilliantly captures the dynamic of parents and children as children mature and begin to establish their own identities.
Quite subtly, and in ways that only good fiction can, the novel presents a commentary on the sexism that often masquerades as religion. Bryan's interactions with his sister Ilana and his mother Naomi offer some of the book's more humorous moments, while highlighting the insidious and varied ways in which men quash women's voices in the name of religion. The novel also grapples with the sexism buried deep within the myth of the nuclear family. Naomi and Shayna, two mothers marrying off their children, are complex characters whose identity crises are brought about by a combination of inner religious conflict, frustrated housewifery and the end of child-rearing. Shayna defers her dreams to her children through whom she lives vicariously. As her daughter Tzippy leaves the home and slowly severs the close connection with her mother, Shayna is thrust into a depression from which only Tzippy can rouse her. Naomi is no less affected by her children's rebellion. Their rejection of her well-researched and carefully planned mothering strategies causes Naomi to question her own identity-an identity circumscribed by her role as their mother.
In short, this is a terrific, funny and insightful book, and a great read.
Rating: 2
Summary: Disappointing¿ Doesn¿t Live up to the Promise of The Ladies¿
Comment: I seem to be among the small minority who felt sorely disappointed in Tova Mirvis's second book, The Outside World. True, The Ladies' Auxiliary is a hard act to follow, but The Outside World is more than merely anticlimactic. In contrast with the lyrical quality and light touch which distinguish The Ladies' Auxiliary, The Outside World is heavy-handed and ponderous. While other reviewers and customers praise Mirvis for her detail and character development, I feel she violates that cardinal rule of writing: "Show, don't tell."
In fact, despite (or perhaps, because of) Mirvis's laborious narration of her various characters' inner lives, I did not come away from the book with a sense of who they really were. Bryan, Tzippy, and their various relatives felt like pawns, dutifully moving the plot where Mirvis wanted it to go. Rather than creating complex, multifaceted personalities, Mirvis gives each character one or two salient traits (Shayna's conformity, Joel's cynicism) which seem to define them wholly. The one character with some dimensionality, Ilana, remains peripheral to the story and, as such, under-explored.
The characters' interpersonal conflicts, like their intrapersonal ones, are not developed to their potential. For example, why did Mirvis choose to have the Millers and the Goldmans share a past? Wouldn't the clash of cultures have been far more compelling had it been compounded with the awkwardness between strangers, the growing pains of forced association inflicted by marriage between two families with no common ground or history? Naomi, a perpetually Polyannish peacemaker, would have been more interesting to read about had she had the courage to clash with her various family members and in-laws. What about the relationship between Tzippy and her mother-in-law, or Tzippy and her sister-in-law? These potentially explosive interactions would have added some fire to an otherwise banal novel.
It's true that Mirvis knows the Orthodox world well and can write about it authentically; however, many details fail to ring true. The divide between Stern College and Boro Park is underestimated in this novel; Shayna's transition from one to the other could not have been smooth. Yet, to read the book, one would assume that Shayna's choosing to live in Boro Park is as natural as Naomi's (far more consistent) settling in Tean-oops, I mean Laurelwood.
In addition, Tzippy's decision to attend seminary in Israel at the ripe old age of 22 would, at a minimum, place her at odds with her 18-year-old seminary counterparts. A 22-year-old girl in an Orthodox seminary is an anomaly, except perhaps in a seminary for baalot tshuva (returnees to the faith) - a place sheltered Tzippy would probably never hear of, much less enroll in. Because most seminary girls are 18, not 22, shidduch-dating in seminary is far from commonplace. Finally, the idea of a girl of Tzippy's background and apparent temperament deciding to brazenly seek out a young man on her own is contrived at best. Surely, Bryan and Tzippy could have met (or reunited, apparently more convenient for Mirvis) in a more realistic way.
In sum, while the premise of the novel is interesting, neither the characters nor the various plot contrivances live up to their potential. I'm hoping that Mirvis's next novel, reportedly focusing on a multi-generational Southern Jewish family saga, will return her to more familiar territory as in The Ladies' Auxiliary. To invoke another writing cliché, Mirivs appears to write best when she follows that time-honored writing advice, "write what you know."
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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: Almost Perfect Moment, An : A Novel by Binnie Kirshenbaum ISBN: 0060520868 Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis ISBN: 0345441265 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 05 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers: An Intimate Journey Among Hasidic Girls by Stephanie Wellen Levine, Carol Gilligan ISBN: 081475192X Publisher: New York University Press Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Dream House by ROCHELLE KRICH ISBN: 034544972X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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