14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
BITTERSWEET UNDERSTANDING AND PENETRATING INSIGHT, March 20, 2001
This review is from: Giving up America (Paperback)
The sad dissolution of a marriage is often fodder for fiction, but seldom is this experience related with the bittersweet understanding and penetrating insight found in Giving Up America, a second novel by Pearl Abraham.
As in her well received debut, The Romance Reader, Ms. Abraham's latest offering is framed by Jewish tradition, the dichotomy between Hasidic and Orthodox beliefs, the struggle to reconcile centuries old values with contemporary secular life in that quintessential street-of-dreams city - New York.
Despite paternal objections, Deena has married Daniel, an Orthodox Jew. Her father, a scholarly Hasidic, opposed the marriage for Kabbalistic reasons, citing numerics to warn her that the sum of the numbers assigned to the couple's names forms the Hebrew word for "pain." "Within a mere two years," he cautioned, "you'll know it was never meant to be. But it will take more than two years to correct your error."
Deena becomes a copy writer for an ad agency, employment she considers irrelevant, "The best ad was only an ad; and it was disposable." After seven years, the pair buy the home of their dreams, an older house in need of restoration. Finding satisfaction in the labor of "scraping, stripping, sanding and painting," Deena is content. But Daniel grows restless, saying he works hard enough during the week, and wants something else on weekends. He suggests inviting Jill, the new secretary at his office, and Ann, her roommate, to dinner. A former North Carolina department store model and Miss America wannabe, Jill laughs easily, bringing a heretofore unknown insouciance into their home. As the friendship between the four grows, Daniel and Deena attempt ballroom dancing lessons, even buy a Walkman in their attempts to become au courant.
But this is a mix that curdles rather than blends. As their habits become more secularized, as Deena and Daniel discover more about themselves individually, they appreciate each other less. Daniel, Deena opines "fastened onto bad news like it was some kind of insurance." While Daniel sees his wife as difficult, obsessed with running.
Eventually, Deena suspects that Daniel has become romantically involved with Jill. There are late night whispered phone calls, and his admission that he has kissed her. Fleeing from a situation she does not know how to resolve, Deena moves into a co-worker's Manhattan apartment. When she sees her friend's name by an entrance bell, "...suddenly Deena wanted her own name affixed on a door somewhere in this city. She'd never lived alone."
While Daniel, "...frightened and exhilarated at once," pulls off his ever present yarmulke, "the constant cover a lid, and walked like that bareheaded under the blue-ink sky, under the stars, under the eyes of God."
Finding her freedom intoxicating, Deena is attracted to another man, and refuses to return home. When pleas from Daniel's family are ignored, Daniel phones to say that he has spoken with the rabbi, "I'm filing for divorce. I have to....the local rabbi advises a quick divorce to minimize the sin."
"A divorce," Deena thinks. "As easy as that. She wouldn't have to ask for it....The rabbi advised and Daniel agreed. He was a victim, a man sinned against by his wife, which couldn't be allowed."
Ms. Abraham, the daughter of a Chassidic Orthodox rabbi, knows well the world of which she writes. Giving Up America may represent many who walk a tight rope, attempting to balance a life circumscribed by tradition with their desire to enjoy the bounty proffered by a millennium-bound secular world. Nonetheless, the author has crafted a moving story of becoming, of growing self-awareness, related in subtle, tempered tones. Ms. Abraham's prose makes no strident demands. It doesn't have to. Her suggestions are powerful.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Inspecting the foundations of marriage and faith, September 8, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Giving up America (Paperback)
Pearl Abraham's second book, Giving Up America, illustrates the gradual tears in moral fiber that people of every background may experience when an important relationship is tested. While Pearl Abraham's book deals with the testing of the marriage of a young Hasidic wife and her Orthodox Jewish husband by his attraction to a Southern beauty, it illuminates as well the testing of other relationships.
Deena and Daniel do not enjoy the support of an involved family. Each belongs to a separate community of work friends who owe their allegiance to the individual instead of the couple. The "foreign" natures of the couple and the Southern beauty they befriend do not threaten the marriage; but the lack of family, societal and cultural support helps to make it vulnerable.
As is the case for many melting pot marriages, the marriage of Deena and Daniel is tested at its very foundation. Abraham inspects every crack, every weakness, every short cut taken, every neglected aspect of maintenance in the marriage. Giving Up America made me wonder whether a couple who attend to their relationship with the same devout attention lavished on their home might have a better chance no matter how different the persons' background.
In The Romance Reader, Abraham's protagonist breaks with tradition when tradition collides with her dreams. In Giving Up America, the bonds of tradition wear away long before daily friction begins to whittle away at the protagonist's dreams. Readers don't need to be Jewish to identify with the characters. They need only be willing to observe the often infinitesimal crumbling that undermines marriage and faith so painfully.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
