12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a great book!, January 23, 2005
Both an excellent coming of age story and a facinating look at the struggles of a young Orthodox Jew in a secular world. This book is funny, poignant and a lot of fun to read. While aimed at the "young adult" audience, I'm in my 40's, not Jewish, and had trouble putting it down.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, November 26, 2006
This review is from: Never Mind The Goldbergs (Paperback)
Yeah, Hava Aaronson is an Orthodox Jew.
Yes, she attends a pretty gritty Jewish private school, and her life seems pretty complicated at times.
No, you shouldn't assume anything about her for even one second.
Hava, a seventeen-year-old Orthodox Jew living in New York, is going to spend the summer in Hollywood filming for a television series about the "comedic life" of an Orthodox family. Little does she know that she is the only Jewish person in the cast of this show--about a Jewish family.
In his debut novel, Matthue Roth portrays the thoughts of a teenage Jewgirl in stunning fashion, giving the readers great dialogue as well as utterly believable internal monologue. Hava is a character whose haywire thoughts and coming-of-age realizations are completely understandable and make the novel even more cool and fun.
Complementing the hilarious narrative are the stream of characters Hava is forced to interact with and the situations she manages to get herself into. Roth portrays Hollywood life through the eyes of a devout Jewish girl raised in New York in an almost satirical fashion, yet it is dead on and only makes everything even funnier and keeps the pages turning quickly.
Along the way, readers learn more than they probably ever knew about the Jewish religion and culture. Roth is able to tell a great story and at the same time push through some food for thought to his readers about the overlooked religion, as well as comparison from secular and orthodox lifestyles.
Hilarious characters, embarrassing and awkward adventures, Shabbos at Blue Hebrew House in Berkeley, the filming process of a three month long movie [no jokes here, three months long], and the introduction of a new kind of voice from a different kind of heroine in this crowded world, is just a taste of the fun you'll have while reading NEVER MIND THE GOLDBERGS.
Reviewed by: Long Nguyen
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hard Not To Love This Unique Teen Heroine, May 9, 2005
Never Mind the Goldbergs is a winding story of teen-ager Hava Aaronson, a New Yorker who moves to LA to co-star in a new sit-com about an Orthodox Jewish family. But Aaronson is not a professional actress; rather, she's an Orthodox Jew who is selected in order to lend the television show a little authenticity.
Hava is a fun and interesting character. She's very religious and traditional, but she's also a punk-rock fan and has a lot of personal attitude and style. She may keep kosher, speak Yiddish, wear long skirts and not touch boys. But she curses like crazy, sneaks into clubs, drinks alcohol and talks back to authority figures. And with a self-done haircut, a long black skirt covered by a green kilt and a short mini, her Orthodox look is anything but.
The book does a good job of showing a glimpse of Orthodox Jews and their community, rituals and ideas. It's easy to categorize and label religious people, even teen-agers, and define them by religion alone. Hava won't let the reader or anyone else do that to her. It's interesting to see her struggle with her faith, her relationship to God, her lifestyle, her career. It's also refreshing to see religious youths who not only pray, but act, make movies, rap, party, dance.
This is a coming-of-age story with a lot of gimmicks. It would be interesting enough to read about a punky Orthodox girl and her viewpoints and thoughts on boys and friends and parents and school and pop culture. Throwing in the Hollywood elements almost seems over-the-top. But if you go along for the ride, it's a fun trip.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
