Title: Sophomoric and Saccharine
Review: A positive view of the Orthodox community? Come on! These women -- even Batsheva, the "heroine," the iconoclastic outsider, convert who dares to dress and think a little differently and who maybe even sinned once or twice in her almost forgotten past -- are narrow, petty, nosy, gossiping, lamebrained. As characters in a novel they are predictable and banal. If I lived in a "community" like the one depicted I would run away, too. The writing is childlike and plodding and overly saccharine; hardly a biting satire. And the plot? A teenager leaves the community and so does the rabbi's son, and finally some people realize it's not the fault of the iconoclastic outsider. Spare me. Find another creative writing program. I wonder sometimes: with all the good writing going on, how does something like this get published?
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