Customer Reviews

Jephte's Daughter (Readers Guide Editions)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Jephte's Daughter is the story of Batsheva Ha-Levi, the last surviving descendant of a Hassidic dynasty nearly wiped out in the Holocaust. A dutiful Orthodox Jewish daughter, she marries the man her father chooses for her--a renowned scholar--and moves off to Jerusalem to begin a life with him with nothing but youthful and vague romantic notions and her deep Jewish faith to guide her. In the disastrous marriage that follows, both fail her for a time, but ultimately her faith sustains her and gives her the courage to save herself and her son, and while she outgrows youthful romantic ideals, she ultimately finds love in the end.

If I had bought Jephte's Daughter in the new edition, packaged as women's literary fiction in trade size with an abstract design on the cover, I probably would have been as disappointed as many of the readers reviewing it here were. Yes, the storyline is often silly and unbelievable. Some of the supporting characters and dialogue are almost unbearably cheesy.

But I read the original paperback version of the book, published in 1989. The mass market paperback features an exotic Jerusalem backdrop and a beautiful long haired woman in the foreground, gazing out with longing and determination, and the cover art and packaging show the books true origins: not an Oprah-style literary novel, but a romantic saga of the kind that was so popular in the 1980s, of the Belva Plain/Judith Krantz variety. Judged as a product of the 1980s women's fiction market and not that of the 2000s, Jephte's Daughter actually succeeds pretty well, meeting the conventions of those stories (fabulous wealth, family history, bad experiences with men before the right one emerges, a strong central female character) but departing from them into the interesting setting of the Orthodox Jewish world.

The parts of the book showing Batsheva's upbringing and life in Jerusalem are the best parts of the book. Ragen's love for the rituals and the learning that suffuse traditional Jewish life is evident in the details that she pours into this part of the book. Batsheva's husband and mother in law are cartoonish bad guys, but underneath the soap opera melodrama are real issues, as Orthodox women in Israel sometimes do find themselves trapped by tradition and mores in disastrous marriages with abusive husbands who refuse to give them divorces.

The book weakens when it leaves this setting, and the section set in England is cringeworthy in its depiction of goyish male lust and snobbish anti-semitism. Some of the dialogue is simply laughable. And the man who ultimately turns out to be Batsheva's true love is unbelievably perfect. But the story was suspenseful enough to keep me turning pages quickly, even if I did wince at some of the worst dialogue and skim over the purplest prose.

I can't wholeheartedly recommend the book, but I know that the author, Naomi Ragen, has continued to write books set in the world of Orthodox Jewry which is a setting that fascinates me, and I know that her recent books have been fairly well received, so I would definitely read more of her work. Taken as a dated 1980s novel and a first novel at that, it's not horrible, but it probably should have been left back in the 1980s rather than dusted off and repackaged for current day release.

This is a made-for-TV movie in book form. It is so sloppy in its writing and editing that I almost wished for commercial breaks. The basic premise that this family would allow a free-thinking non-Jewish tutor into their home to work with their impressionable young daughter is so absurd as to be laughable. About 50 times you get to read about the main character's long legs and slim waist. She has no education but is accepted (embraced!) by intellectual cirles in London. She has no training but becomes an instant success as a photographer. One character fondly remembers his mother, except we were previously told she died when she gave birth to him. Events described don't add up in terms of a time line -- one character born in 1894 has a daughter who is a professor in Germany before the war -- so she was born when her father was 10? Jews are described in the most humiliating terms -- the Orthodox are continuously sweating and wiping their brows. This simplistic novel was a major disappointment.

I thought that this was a good book, interesting & engaging to read. However, I have to [say] that the storyline was not very believable. I found it strange that this very well educated & religious girl all of a sudden "forgets" that a married orthodox woman can't walk all over Jerusalem wearing pants, and with her hair uncovered. Most of non-Jewish women know that, but she didn't? And then a father that absolutely adored her up to the point she got married,all of a sudden decides that he won't help his only child? And a Christian would-be priest that "conviniently" discovers a Jewish mother seems a little too much, at least to me. Although I still enjoyed reading this book, in my opinion it wasn't as good as "Sotah", and "Sacrifice of Tamar" both of which I found absolutely amazing.

I agree with another reviewer here about how the storyline andcharacters for this novel are just utterly preposterous! If theprotagonist of the novel really was an ultra-Orthodox Jew, nothingthat was expected of her after marriage would have been a surprise.

The husband is originally portrayed as a sympathetic character but almost immediately becomes a caricature. He starts beating his wife and torturing her. Her parents don't give a hoot when she calls them to tell them that her husband is abusing her. Supposedly their lives revolved around her before she married. All of a sudden, they stopped caring. Real people just aren't like that.

While the writing style was engaging, I finished this book merely for the entertainment value. The plot twists were so outrageous that they were quite amusing.

This is the 3rd book I've read by Naomi Ragen so I was more familiar with the ultra orthodox communities her characters belong too. I got into the story more this time because I wasn't so focused on trying to understand their bizarre world. I have to say this book was JUICY and kept me interested. Especially the end was a real page turner. It had a soap opera quality to it with the rich father and all the honor and expectations the family had, plus you had the evil husband and mother in-law. Jephte has big balls and you really root for her. She's a spoiled princess who's still innocent and kind with a self preservation about herself you can't deny. Interesting reading for sure, I would recommend it.

It is difficult to categorize this seductive first novelistic offering by Naomi Ragen.

Somewhat sheephishly, this middle-aged, white, male reviewer confesses its tones of over-written girly pop, an aspect that explains its being laid aside half-read for six months before it jumped back into my suitcase and lured me into a hungry, late-night series of readings to finish it. This element of Jephte's Daughter is most charitably explained as the work of an immature but promising novelist.

Then there is the tendency towards caricature, a trait placed in service of an almost Wellhausian disdain for ritual. This leveling of complex religious reality is used against both Jewish and Gentile denizens of Ragen's pages: for example, the preternaturally hateful Hassidic first husband of Ragen's heroine (Isaac ben Harshen) and the erstwhile Roman Catholic noviate who eventually gets the girl (the promisingly named David Hope). The key virtue of the latter protagonist is that he escapes all that churchly stuff that had him tied in knots.

Caricature also appears in the clumsy reconversion of David Hope from the Church's bosom to the heretofore secret Jewish identity of his deceased mother, though this may merely be the quibble of a Gentile and Christian reader who must acknowledge that stories of conversion that run in the opposite direction are rarely handled any better.

She has cast her academics in almost universally unfeeling and villainous form and located them in all the right places, Cambridge chief among them. I suppose it provides a convenient place for that.

Finally, there is the unblinking romanticism of the book, whereby the appeal of strong feeling and its culmination in the girl getting the guy--and vice versa--are granted a self-authenticating absoluteness without the need for further discussion.

So, if Ragen has written these several books within the cover of just one, how is that that this reviewer in the end finds himself strangely moved by the book and eager to move on now to the more mature Naomi Ragen?

'Difficult to say. I think the young novelist touched a vein. She has taken the measure of religious bigotry in several of its guises and offered something that seems compelling and real in its place, even if one wonders how the dazzling Batsheva and her David got along after the rains returned to Jerusalem and the drains clogged from time to time.

She has in the end told a good story, not with the character development of an accomplished novelist, but with enough justice that a chain of improbable sequences actually comes together as remotely plausible and--mirabile dictu--rather gripping.

One actually lays the book down feeling rather fond of Bathsheva and David, shaken by their odyssey, and wishing them well.

Only a novelist on the way to accomplishing her potential could have pulled that off for this grumpy old man. So let's give credit where it's due.

As a Hassidic woman myself, I found this book to be far fetched and unrealistic. The storyline was actually humorous because it is so far from the realities that take place in our community. When you read this book, realize that Naomi Ragen is biased (perhaps because of a negative experience) and not giving an accurate depiction or correct portrayal of the Hassidic society.

a friend lent me this book, i picked it up ad couldnt put it doen i was up the whole night reading its worth every penny i have read it so many times over its such a special book. i must therefore strongly disagree with the last two reviews. yes indeed some of the story may be almost impossible to understand, how can parents not listen to such a cry for help? how can a man change so suddenly or be so cruel? how can she not realise such basic things he duties? naomi ragen has given us the answer unfortunately the world is not sugar coated and no one is perfect. i think she made her characters all seem very understandable, the parents, - their expectations made them overlook the situation some people live in denial its their way its sad, it seems unrealsitic but it unfortunately does happen - ms ragen is simply opening our eyes to this. as for the husband - it is a common known fact that what is on the outside is not always on the inside from the start ragen introduced the character as somewhat ignorant to what a woman is and this is why he became what he was. the sages say that the lust for honour will bring a persons downfall is this not demonstrated so carefully by the author? finally Batsheva shows naivety yet she acts with such courage and wisdom, she made her mistakes - she was 18!...
im sorry to have been so defensive and critical of the two previous editorials but this is my favourite book, it taught me alot about people and alot about the world and that naivety wont get anyone anywhere. its sad but true things like this do happen and people dont always deal with it the way you expect them or want them to.
congratulations on this book - it was truely an absolutely fantastic work. i highly highly reccomend it.

This was a story I couldn't put down until I finished. I think the people whining about her character not being true or real don't know how to just suspend disbelief and enjoy a good tale.

I loved 'Sotah' and 'The Scrifice of Tamar', so I bought this book believing this book would be as rich and satisfying as the first two Naomi Ragen books I've read. Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed. The fact that I felt sympathy for the books 'bad guy' (Bat Sheva's husband) but none for the heroine would easily indicate how bad the book is.

Being Ragen's first book, I can accept less than perfect writing. My problem here was the plot consistency (or rather - lack of). On one hand, before marrying, Bat Sheva is described as this ultra orthodox, chaste girl who goes to a private, orthodox Jewish private school, only wears modest dresses, and is proud of her heritage. But all that heritage is quickly forgotten once she gets married. The strict dressing code (no pants for women, hair covered for married women) and food code (strict kosher rules), etc. - are suddenly all forgotten in Bat sheva's quest for happiness, simply because it's her new husband who represents them, and he, in turn, represents 'evil'. Even though the interpertation of religious laws can vastly differ between sects and groups within Judaism, I'd expect someone like Bat Sheva to comply with the basics, but she doesn't. She also doesn't try and understand her husband's & mother in law's point of view, but expects everyone to understand her 'tragic' stance of the misunderstood newcomer.