Archive for December 2010
Boychiks in the Hood: Travels in the Hasidic Underground, by Robert Eisenberg
This is another in a string of books which I’ve found disappointing lately! I will say, though, before I talk about this one, that I am really enjoying my two current reads. So don’t worry, more positive reviews to come soon. 🙂
The book is by Robert Eisenberg, a non-religious Jew from somewhere in the U.S., who travels to various Hasidic communities around the world after becoming curious about his own family’s history. I was interested enough in the premise to give this one a try despite the hokey title which was an immediate turn-off. It’s so silly and bad, right? I mean, I like puns and wordplay and what have you as much as the next reader, but…*shivers*. It’s tasteless! Or something. Anyway.
What I liked: The book is a survey of sorts which highlights the diversity of Hasidim, which is generally treated as a monolithic set of beliefs/community of people. To be completely honest, I didn’t know that Hasidim wasn’t a monolithic entity before reading this, so that new knowledge made this a worthwhile read to me.
Because it is a sort of survey, though, there wasn’t much room to go into any depth about any of the Hasidic communities Eisenberg visited and this was really annoying to me while reading. I don’t blame Eisenberg entirely for this as the depth I craved would have required a different kind of book from the one he set out to write…
…but I can and do blame him for wayyyy overusing pop culture references. There’s, like, at least one on every page. Some of which don’t even make sense (the band Nirvana as neo-hippies? Um, no). Really, it’s too much. Also, his language does not always reflect the respect he assures the reader he feels for the people he’s writing about: he refers to them more than once as “other-worldy”, with the result of exoticizing them completely, and at one point refers to an individual Hasidic man as a “gnome-like creature”. Yikes. There is also description of a woman in terms of the food he thinks she resembles, remarking that she would make a wonderful subject for some real-life artist famous for depicting women in terms of food, which I thought was kind of creepy and gross (it certainly wasn’t flattering). Unfortunately I can’t reference with page numbers because sadly, I’ve lost my reading notes and am too lazy to search through the book for them, but I promise…this stuff was in there. And it left a bad taste in my mouth.
I guess in the end I can see Eisenberg writing an interesting journalistic magazine article on the subject, but the book felt like just such an article that had been stretched out to achieve book-length without adding any real content, and his style got on my nerves to a severe degree. So I can’t say I recommend this one. I’m glad to be moving on!
After the Fire, a Still Small Voice, by Evie Wyld
Okay everyone, it is that time of year and I’m going to say just one word that everyone’s probably tired of seeing on blogs, even (probably especially) if you yourself are not in school, but that explains the relative blog-neglect: FINALS. They’re happening. But before they started happening, about a week ago, I did manage to finish After the Fire, a Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld, and only now have a little breather in which to post about it. Whew!
So, this book was all over the blogosphere a few months ago, and I recall many rave reviews. I was expecting to agree with them but, I’m sorry to say, I don’t.
The book follows Frank and Leon, two Australian men of different generations, fighting wars both literal and metaphorical. It’s a book about violence and the ways in which it shapes our families and relationships, its repercussions and disturbingly persistent influence.
I had a weird experience reading this book that I don’t remember having before. I went back and forth between liking it and disliking it over and over again, whereas usually I know very early on how I feel about a book and that feeling only intensifies the more I read. I think it was because I was expecting to like this book and wanted to, but the characters and story in general were really boring to me. It was all very flat, I thought, though every once in a while one of Wyld’s descriptions would catch me and reel me back in. I guess I see potential here, but for me, this one didn’t live up to the hype. If I hadn’t been stuck waiting in the emergency room to see a doctor with no other reading material, I don’t think I would have finished it*. The “revelation” at the end was obvious at least half way through the book, and the subplot about the missing girls made me really anxious and kind of sick-feeling.
On a barely related end-note, Evie Wyld has such an awesome rock-star sounding name. It’s like straight out of the movie Velvet Goldmine. I love it. I hope that her subsequent work is more interesting to me, if for no other reason than I’ll have reason to continue speaking her name.
*Don’t worry, nothing serious. I woke up with a mysterious puffy eye (like, REALLY puffy), and the hypochondriac in me insisted I make sure it wasn’t a food allergy or something. Apparently, it’s possible to sneeze or blow your nose too hard, so that the force of the blow puts pressure on the cavity between your nose and eye and the extra air inflates the tissue around your eye causing it to swell to epic porportions. Like a balloon. Yes, really. Nerdiest medical issue everrrr.
A Novel Gift Campaign
I stumbled across this update the other day and thought I’d pass it along–Readergirlz and First Book are working together to get books to low-income teens. They say:
Let’s get organizations serving these teens registered with First Book so they can be matched with inventory during the holidays.
Here’s what we need you to do:
Post to Facebook and tweet your beak off about these books using the hashtag #novelgift.
Here’s a tinyurl link to their registration page: http://tinyurl.com/2a5mwpj.
Or you can link to this blog post: http://readergirlz.blogspot.com/2010/11/novel-gift-over-125000-free-books-to.html
Then, get in touch with every group you can think of that works with young adults–schools, after-school programs, church youth groups, community centers, etc.—and let them know that these books are available now.
The five-minute online registration these groups can use is here:
http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/register/.First Book is also eager to answer questions, either by email to help@firstbook.org, or by phone at 866-READ-NOW or 866-732-3669.
If you participate, drop us a note at readergirlz@gmail.com to be included in our blog roll of thanks to run December 31.
A worthy, giving project in the spirit of the holiday season. As readers, I’m sure we can all appreciate the positive impact that a new book of our own can have on us. Everyone deserves that warmth every once in a while 🙂