Customer Reviews

Bloomfield Avenue: A Jewish-Catholic Jersey Girl's Spiritual Journey

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I got home from school Wednesday night I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me...Linda Mercadante's delightful book. I ordered it in August and in the crush of semester demands had forgotten about it. I was happy it had come and decided I would look forward to reading it at the end of the semester. But then Friday night I picked it up and started to read it. It was late and I was tired but as soon as I woke up the next day I started reading. I finally got out of my pajamas around 1 p.m. and finished it by 2 p.m. For me, the bread of life is always best found in books that share the gifts and graces of life's beautiful journey. This is one such book. Many things about it inspired me and have left me pondering. I love the description of bakery food as a "liturgical year in food." And I found Mercadante's recognition that she no longer needed to rely on "someone else's pats and hats," as particularly confirming. I found myself often stopping to consider my own situation as she described her journey and wrestlings. I wonder, am I free? Do I ask the questions I need to ask and do I challenge the people I need to challenge like my classmates and friends? I hung on every word as she described her marriage to an abusive alcoholic. I want to believe in the possibility of wholeness for people whose illness and choices lead to such distruction, yet I do not want to be in complicity with evil. Mercadante's book has given me a lot to think about. It was a beautiful and inspiring read and I am so thankful that she has shared her journey. I will look forward to getting copies for my mother and sister for Christmas.

A memoir is a tricky thing: How do we speak our truth without hurting others? or, at least, giving their story the same respect we expect for our own? By design, a spiritual memoir organizes selected events around the core of present self-knowledge, and this process turns a complicated life into a narrative fiction. The way an author pieces her story together then becomes the basis for judging its value.

Because love is the primary theme and a crucifix the opening image, a quote from James Hillman sums up my response to Bloomfield Avenue: "A morality which would remove the source of conflict, ease the role of guilt, and diminish the importance of being torn on the cross of oppositions is no longer a morality but a new theological tranquilizer called love" (Insearch: Psychology and Religion, page 83).

Tracing the crucifix leitmotif through the book, it becomes clear that the author tranquilizes herself rather than working through a conflict and reconciling her own needs with those of others. At her father's funeral, for example, her brother and Jewish mother had made all arrangements, but the author wanted a priest and overrode their objections. The priest, who knew no one present, gave a blessing and left a large crucifix on the coffin. When the funeral director offered it to her mother, the author writes, "Her reaction was stark and unexpected" (page 198). How could it have been unexpected? The author had detailed her mother's horror of crucifixes in chapter 2. It had been a difficult issue between them since childhood.

Oblivious to her mother's anguish, the author focuses in the following paragraph on the way the funeral "seemed to promote some kind of a further healing" for herself and decides to turn her musings into a published article. The following four paragraphs sketch her mother's death soon after, without acknowledging any regrets or soul-searching.

Similarly, when her second husband complains of feeling crucified by the author, she dismisses his feelings with no attempt to understand and reports, "I was afraid to be near him, even though we met only in public" (page 192). Has she never experienced a values conflict that felt like a crucifixion?

Certain that violence is the cause of their marital breakup, the author refuses to listen to her parents' views when they support her husband and validate his analysis of her contribution to their marital problems. This husband, the only father her son has known, was living nearby when the book was published, 14 years after their divorce. Perhaps this is why she thanks her son "for resolutely refusing to get involved in this book" (page x). Did she ever consider the impact on him of publishing only her side of the story?

The author is such a compelling writer that a reader can easily identify with her fears, overlooking distortions that are, at best, self-serving. The absence of meaningful dialogue with any of the people in the life she describes suggests troubling blind spots.

She is courageous in portraying her own pain, but discounts the pain of others, polarizes, and plays the victim. Instead of empathizing with other valid perspectives or honoring their contribution, she casts a withering gaze on those whose beliefs differ from her own. Her castigation of people who define themselves as "spiritual but not religious" is a case in point, along with her utter dismissal of addiction-recovery communities. She has so little respect for the latter that she easily violates AA confidentiality by outing group members. At the book's end, she communes alone with posters of "unnamed immigrants" on Ellis Island instead of reconciling with the actual people in her life.

These limitations would be understandable if Bloomfield Avenue were a coming-of-age narrative, as the use of "girl" in the subtitle suggests. But as a memoir by a spiritual guide, the book's tone warrants a different criterion of judgment.

The author provides no specific dates, perhaps to impart a timeless quality to the events she describes, or perhaps to hide her age, but she does say that she's spent 13 years preparing for her ministry and 19 years as a seminary teacher/researcher. Surely the beginning of a spiritual journey is to recognize that we've hurt others. Offering this book as a model for others to follow is the reason I give it only 1 star.

Bloomfield Avenue in Newark is where Linda Mercadante grew up. Linda grew up amongst her Italian Catholic relatives with her Jewish relatives were nearby. It was the 1940s when she was six years old
and her parents were a "mixed" marriage, which just didn't happen back then. Her father was Catholic and her mother was Jewish but they didn't practice any religion in the household. Both parents didn't approve of Protestants though and all agreed they were destined for hell.

At the age of six, Linda wanted a crucifix, more than anything else. She tells of how she didn't feel like she belonged. Religion was very segregated. Her own grandmother treated her as if she was guilty of some sin for being born.

Along with her confusion about religion, she didn't feel she fit in with the 'girl protocols' of the times. It wasn't fair that she couldn't wear pants, cowboy boots or go out after dark. Linda refers to her childhood, saying there were "always disadvantages and stress." She portrays the picture of a child that just didn't fit in anywhere.

Throughout her adulthood Linda went from religion to religion trying to find one that fit. After being disillusioned by the Catholic religion, she became a feminist during college. Then she went off to Europe to enter an Evangelical commune/teaching facility. Many of their beliefs were hers but there wasn't a big role for women within the commune. She came back to America and there were other colleges and programs where she studied different denominations, finally becoming ordained.

During her PhD study courses, she was in an abusive marriage and struggling to get through that because she felt that with her faith it should be fixable--but it wasn't.

This whole story gives the impression of a very unhappy life. The author started at an early age worrying about religion and fitting in. Throughout the book she never seemed to quite fit into anything she
attempted. It's a story of continual searching and bumps in the road along the way.

Hopefully the writing of this book has been cathartic for her as she doesn't give the impression of much happiness throughout her search.

Armchair Interviews says: Unique look at one woman's struggles.

I bought this book after hearing Dr. Mercadante speak at my church about the "spiritual but not religious" movement. Being part of the younger population at church and having come to faith as an adult, her research rung true to me and was inspiring. So, I purchased "Bloomfield Avenue." Her book addresses many issues that others can relate to: coming from parents of differing religious backgrounds, dealing with issues of femininity, ups and downs in marriage, and abuse. Her story is told very honestly. It takes you from Newark, NJ to Italy and lands in Delaware, OH (and lots of places in between). I highly recommend this book. It's a good read.