Customer Reviews

Double Crossing

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

 

 

This book seems sequestered into the young adult niche, but I loved it. Picked it up because of its cover; read the first page and did not stop till the end. It is a beautiful story, told with rhythm and pulse. The most enlightening book I've read regarding the late 19th and early 20th century trek of Jews from the pale to the new world It might bother more orthodox jews because of its emphasis on assimilation, but as someone without the cultural past, it was mesmerizing.

In 'Double Crossing' Eve Tal has done something remarkable; she has combined the cadences of storytelling/almost of a fairy tale with the reality of living in a Jewish shtetl in czarist Russia at the turn of the century. With wonderful dialogue, lovely stories and vivid descriptions, Ms.Tal allows us, through her heroine Raizel, to truly feel both the warmth and fear that were part of Jewish life in czarist Russian. She brings alive the pain of separation, the pain of the choices Jews had to make to survive. I think it is something of a disservice to label 'Double Crossing' a book for young adults. It is absorbing, instructive and just plain enjoyable for all ages.

Eve Tal clearly knows how to write fun, readable prose. Her main character is extremely engaging. I found her interweaving of Yiddish folktales into the book enjoyable and beautiful. The description of the Ellis Island experience is very informative.

That said, this is NOT a Jewish book. I'd actually describe this as an anti-Torah book. The cover I read complimented Tal on her historical research, but she didn't do sufficient research into Judaism. Very early on in the book, she describes a supposedly very Orthodox family celebrating the Sabbath...and includes error after error about how they do it (examples: picking flowers and weaving them in a chain, carrying a child on your back in an open field). Tal says Raizel isn't allowed to purchase food while they are on the train, but it's late summer: surely there was fresh fruit available (and she acurately notes later that fresh fruit is generally kosher)?

On their train ride, Raizel is also told by her father that he has no answers for her regarding why trouble occurs to good people. This father is supposed to be a talmid chacham (very learned individual), but someone with that name would have had answers (or at least suggestions of answers) based on basic Jewish texts like the book of Job, commentaries on the Tanach, the work of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, and others. When Raizel asks her father why she can't break the Torah, and why she doesn't get punished by God on the spot when eventually does, she is given no answer, though these are basic fundamental questions and he should also have an answer for that. Clearly, no one religious checked out Tal's text for errors.

*SPOILER ALERT* When the father is comtemplating abandoning his dedication to observance, Tal's text makes him look like a madman, punitive and dismissive towards his daughter, not a like man who loves God and his Torah. I had the impression that Tal wants her reader to root for Raizel's father's eventual (and ridiculously rendered) assimilation. There is no hint of regret later, either.

Religion in this book is made to sound like it belongs to a lost century. If this were true,why is traditional Judaism still around?Moreover, Tal makes it sound like Jews coming to the U.S. had no choice to leave observance behind. While many, if not most, Jews did indeed assimilate upon immigration to the U.S., there are many stories of self-sacrifice and lovingkindness by individuals who did cling to the Torah.

I admire Tal's writing talent (thus, the reluctant three star rating), but I'm very turned off by her lopsided view of history.

Eve Tal's Double Crossing is the kind of young adult book -- rich in historical detail, with compelling characters -- that adults as well as adolescents will love. Raizel doesn't want to go to America, although everyone else in her family thinks it is a wonderful opportunity for her to escape Czarist Russia and the pogroms that threaten every Jewish village. She will help Papa start a new life for all of them. But Raizel has never been away from home, and the journey across Europe and the Atlantic Ocean seems even more dangerous and frightening to her, especially since her ultra-religious father won't let her eat anything that isn't kosher, and practically nothing is. In the end, though, it is Raizel, taking charge and taking matters into her own hands, who makes the journey possible. We journey with her every step of the way, through separation, loneliness, the indignity of immigration health inspections, and the capricious rules of Ellis Island. Based on Tal's grandfather's immigration story, this is a book for anyone who has ever had to brave an unknown and cross into uncharted ground.

I really enjoyed Double Crossing. I kept thinking of my own grandmother's journey to America. I know very little about her experience, but I think they came from approximately the same area and were close to the same age. I was impressed by Eve Tal's story telling skills--I felt I was there, witnessing a part of my history that was lost. The story renewed my awe and respect for the courage of our ancestors in leaving everything they knew to face an unknown country--and the pain of leaving their loved ones behind, unable to communicate with them for long periods of time.

Raisel, the main character of Eve Tal's novel, is a gifted story teller, as Tal herself is. Tal weaves folktales throughout the novel to push the story forward. Raisel finds comfort and strength in those stories, and in her talent to tell them. And she grows into a very confident young woman by the end of the novel as a result of all that she has learned during her journey across the ocean from Russia to America.

Tal paints a vivid picture of an anxious young immigrant who ultimately sets goals for herself that you know, in the end, she will realize.

This beautifully written story brings to life fully human characters, child and adult, as well as the distant time and places in which their struggles occur. It will resonate with any readers who have immigrant ancestors or who have themselves made the journey into a new culture, trying to absorb enough of the new to function while maintaining enough of the old to feel in balance, finding themselves changed in ways they never expected.