Customer Reviews

Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman: Sex And Romance In God's House

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Let me preface this review by stating that I was anxious to read Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman. After reading my first Gary Morgenstein (or Morgy, as I like to call him) about a month ago, I was sold. That being said, Loving was a slightly different beast than How to Find a Woman...or Not. This novel was well-written, interesting, and witty, but it didn't have me giggling uncontrollably as the last one did. It wasn't supposed to, either.

That being said, Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman was a good read. This book is not one of those novels that you can read mindlessly -- you know the type, the ones you can breeze through in a few hours. This demands your attention. But that's not a bad thing. Sometimes a book should challenge you -- it should make you pay attention and think, right? Right.

The book follows Joss Katz, a recently divorced, middle-aged Jewish New Yorker who unsuccessfully tries his hand at the online dating thing until he meets and falls in love with a rabbi. There's a lot more to the book than that...including a range of characters who will annoy you, intrigue you, amuse you, or all three, in the case of Joss' best friend Mandy.

Morgy's style is one that puts you at ease, if that makes sense. From beginning to end, I felt as though I were familiar with Joss, with all his hang-ups, angst, and disappointment. When reading Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman, you feel comfortable, as though you are among friends. Granted, ones who bitch and moan about work and dating and divorce and bills, but who doesn't?

Normally this isnt something I'd read. But I picked it up at a friend's house to read while she was on the phone and I got totally caught up in this love story, couldn't put it down and borrowed it. I wasn't sorry. I found myself really rooting for the characters, especially the main character Joss. While as a woman I found some of the male perspective on romance upsetting, the novel's very funny and very touching and it'll stay with you long after you've finished

Joss is a man who is desperate for love. He craves a romantic relationship, thinking that will make him feel complete. While at a bat-mitzvah, that he was only invited to because he and his ex-wife, Ellen, were together at the time, he becomes enamored with the rabbi, Thalia. He is filled with the desire to meet this woman and learn who she is. Once they become involved, Joss learns some things about Thalia's family that make him more than a little uncomfortable but he is unsure how to handle the situation. He is constantly battling conflicting feelings toward Ellen, Thalia and his roommate who has recently become a man-hater.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was able to relate to the characters and I could feel Joss's pain and longing. I think this book would appeal to just about everyone. We all have been through a situation similar to Joss's. I suggest you read this book:)

Thank you Gary for sending me this book to review.

Jess Katz was in love again. But this time it was way different than the 30ish woman with curling brown hair reading a Jodi Picoult novel on the F train, who'd met his dimpled smile as if he were Michael Myers . . . No, hello, this was true love, right here in God's shrine.

Jess sort of crashed a bat-mitzvah and instantly fell in love - or was it lust - when he set his eyes upon the lovely Thalia Kelinman. But wait, how can Jess be in love with Rabbi Kleinman when he's still love his ex-wife, Ellen, who berated him for showing up at the Bar Mitzvah in the first place? And so begins Loving Rabbi Tahalia Kleinman: Sex and Romance In God's House by Gary Morgenstein.

What follows is a crazy, twisting journey into love, longing, desire - and yes, even sex - filled will a cast of fractured but loveable characters all involved in odd crusades for lost causes.

Ellen can't quite function on her own without calling Jess to "fix" her latest catastrophe. Jess finds himself living with his quirky best friend, who wants to start an organization for straight men who are happy living without women. Rabbi Thalia is struggling to help her traumatized brother, Bobby, lead a normal life, maintain her place in the community and find a loving relationship. Thalia and Bobby's uncle who draws Jess into the midst of his scheme is trying to create a new homeland for the Jews. Through all of this Jess and Thalia strive to find a place in their hearts and in their lives for each other.

Mr. Morgenstien takes this cast of diverse characters and weaves them together into a nubby but interesting story that delves into the hearts of middle-aged men and takes a good look at changes life thrusts on all of us as time marches past. Throughout the book he reveals glimpses of life in the Jewish community in Brooklyn and some of the underlying beliefs that bind this unique group together.

The story is fast-paced - at times almost too much so for the subject matter. In spite of the pace and the rather convoluted plot, about a third of the way though the book, I realized I was wrapped up in the characters' lives and longing for them to see beyond some of their own foibles and move on to happiness and new challenges.

Loving Rabbi Tahalia Kleinman: Sex and Romance In God's House is a look at middle-age, love, romance and sex from a masculine point of view. Men will identify and women will roll their eyes and say "So that's what he was thinking!" Will Jess win the heart of the delectable Rabbi Thalia in the end? - Read the book and find out!

Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman: Sex and Romance in God's House, by Gary Morgenstein is a book that speaks to both genders. It is a love story, and one that is equally humorous and poignant.

The main character is a man named Joss, who is divorced from Ellen, yet there still exists a relationship of sorts between them, more like a love/hate relationship. They are still involved, emotionally, and their banter with each other is an honest appraisal of divorced individuals and how they interact with each other. A long marriage is difficult to completely let go of, even if you are the one who wants the divorce. Joss is lacking in self worth and confidence, and it shows in how he views himself as a man who can't seem to hold on to women in his life.

This also is how his friend Mandelbaum/Mandy views himself, although he would never admit it. Mandy and Joss have been friends for many years, and they share everything with each other. This includes their experiences that they have had with women. To hear them speak, women are self-centered individuals who do nothing but nag, complain and constantly find fault with men. They vent their feelings and thoughts about women to each other. Joss wishes he had a romantic interest in his life, while Mandy is glad to be free. Joss, especially feels vulnerable without a woman, and this is part of the poignancy of the novel, depicted through humorous accounts of Joss and his manipulations with those he interacts with in his daily life.

Joss crashes a Bat Mitzvah service overseen by Rabbi Thalia Kleinman. He immediately falls hopelessly in love with her...love at first sight, so to speak. He comes up with a plan (all lies) in which she will counsel him on Judaism, and here begins the folly of the novel. Yes, it is a folly, but a folly with serious overtones. If you read between the lines, you will see what I mean. The humanness of the characters is depicted with forthrightness.

Rabbi Kleinman is a woman of substance, independent, and intriguing. Joss is no match for her mind games and her influence on his emotional state of being. She uses him as a means to an end, yet she cares deeply for Joss. I won't delve into the story line any further. You will have to read it for yourself to decide whether Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman is a book for you. I found it thoroughly delightful.

What I truly enjoyed about the novel are the characters and their relationships to, and with, each other. They could be factual individuals, as the honesty displayed, page after page, is quite pronounced. The conversations and antics could be straight from real life. Relationships are complex and complicated. Within some relationships external superficiality is a mask for inner struggle. That is the crux and excellence of the novel, in my opinion, the fact that Morgenstein paints the reality of relationships so adeptly, both the external appearances and the inner conflicts. Ellen displays a bit of jealousy, Joss displays his continuing love for Ellen. Even though he is adamant about his love for Rabbi Kleinman, and it matters not whether Joss and Ellen's marriage has dissolved, in actuality emotions still linger and reside within both of them.

The hilarity and humor infused within the pages underscores the poignancy, the heart break and vulnerability of Joss' character. Gary Morgenstein depicts and defines individuals with all of their flaws, and that is the beauty and brilliance of his writing. Each character in the novel is important to the whole, and each one is demonstrated with vivid word imagery. From romance and bizarre relationships, to anti-semitism and politics, Loving Rabbi Kleinman: Sex and Romance in God's House, is a book not to be missed. I highly recommend it to everyone.

WHY I LOVED LOVING RABBI THALIA KLEINMAN
What I loved about this book is the very flawed but very human main character, Joss. After his divorce from Ellen (a woman he seems to love and hate in equal measure) and a number of other disastrous attempts at dating, Josh is bitter and frustrated. In fact, he and long time best friend Mandy trade grueling war stories about the fairer sex on a regular basis. The way these two view their lady loves and women in general is somewhat shocking, albeit hysterically funny, but there is an undertone of sadness as well. As much as they find women (apparently all women) to be obnoxiously self absorbed and critical creatures, always nagging and finding fault, there is obvious disdain for themselves, as men, as well. Both feel like losers- Joss especially, for not being able to make their women love them enough to stay.
Despite all the bitching and moaning and self-loathing, however, Joss falls madly in love with the beautiful Rabbi from the moment he lays eyes on her. She is feminine perfection and seems to be part of a different species than all other women- either that or Joss reveals himself for the true romantic that he really is. Women are only the enemy if they hurt him, but if he can just love this one woman and if she will love him back, completely, that is all he really wants.
Of course, Joss is willing to jump through some crazy hoops to win his beloved, like getting involved with her somewhat unstable younger brother, Bobby, and her very political, maybe even dangerous Uncle, Meir Schlom. Meir's plan to fight world-wide anti-Semitism is an ambitious one, indeed. Although Joss is sympathetic to the cause, he becomes more entangled than he normally would to keep an eye on Bobby. And do his efforts pay off in the end? Does he, in fact, end up with the girl of his dreams?
I won't give it away, but that's not even the really interesting thing about the book for me at all. What I find truly fascinating, from a woman's point of view anyways, is the way that Joss and Mandy define their experiences with women, love and romance. The dialogue between them, about women's shortcomings as well as their own, is probably the most honest I've ever read. Not exactly what you'd expect from such obviously educated, intelligent men, but then again, what does intelligence have to do with any of this primal male/female bonding stuff? And even though they are fictional characters and you feel, as a woman, that you're listening in on a conversation between aliens from another planet, you just know that they are speaking for a lot of men in real life.
So if you think you know how men regard the opposite sex and what it is they actually want from us and how they deal with rejection and failed relationships etc.- think again. It's a little scary, but very enlightening and very, very funny and entertaining- I highly recommend it!

Loving a rabbi is a complicated thing as Joss quickly learns in this witty novel by Gary Morgenstein. But loving a neurotic, divorced, but still charming, divorced man is a very complicated thing too, as the rabbi herself learns. Of course, their love story is all the more complicated by Joss' unresolved feelings for his ex-wife. How it all gets resolved, as well as quirky and highly unusual involvement of Joss' best friend, makes this a thoroughly post-modern love story.

A wonderful love story written by a man? Not a common event. But Gary Morgenstein can speak to both men and women, and has created a literary environment where women and men can communicate successfully and evolve. Add to it Rabbi Thalia, a fascinating, attractive heroine, a highly complicated love triangle, a true and abiding friendship between two men who cannot be more unlike each other, and a tight plot, and you got a book that you will not be able to put down. This humane and intelligent book will speak to anyone, regardless of the rabbi in title, so you really don't have to be Jewish to appreciate it. Still, if you happen to be Jewish, what a nice gift for Passover, I say...

All the ingredients of life are in this book: Sex, Drama, and God.
Morgenstein is a fabulous melodramatic satirist. But is it a satire? Yes and much more. It is the aroma of a forbidden steamy relationship. It is the broken mirror of taboo, desire, the heat of the body, and the explosion/implosion of the flesh on an altar. A rabbi woman dressed up with desires, but only Morgenstein could relief her from her anxiety and undress her with passion and finesse.Read it on your weekend, only if you are under the sun of Florida.It is hot out there, but hotter in this book.Great stuff! Five stars all the way. Mazel Tov Morgenstein....