Never Mind The Goldbergs [Paperback]

Matthue Roth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2006

Matthue Roth's inspired and insightful tale of a punk-rock Orthodox Jew who goes to Hollywood to find her place.

Don't think for a second that you know Hava or her place in the world. Yes, she's an Orthodox Jew. But that doesn't mean she can't rock out. And yes, she has opinions about everything around her. But her opinions about herself can be twice as harsh.
Now Hava's just been asked to be the token Jew on a TV show about a Jewish family, trading one insular community for another. As in Tanuja Desai Hidier's BORN CONFUSED, there is soon a collision of both cultures and desires -- with one headstrong heroine caught in the middle.

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Push (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439691893
• ISBN-13: 978-0439691895
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #445,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–Seventeen-year-old New Yorker Hava Aaronson, a self-consciously observant Jew, is nonetheless unorthodox in many ways. She has spiked hair, loves punk culture, and punctuates her colorful, rebellious language with four-letter words (though she is reverently careful to refer to the Supreme Being as "G-d"). Her best friends are her confidant Ian, who is gay and not Jewish, and her platonic soul mate Moishe, who makes offbeat films and practices a kind of countercultural Orthodox Judaism. After a successful stint in a play, Hava is offered a lead role in a Hollywood sitcom about a caricatured American modern Orthodox Jewish family. She is immediately thrust into a world of make-believe and pretense, and spends the summer trying to sort out what is real and what isn't and what her religion means to her. Frequent visits from Ian and Moishe help to ground her, but most of her time is spent in a mixture of boredom, confusion, alienation, and often pointless (though sometimes humorous) rebellion. Hava tells her story in a vivid, funny, and distinguishable voice, but the narrative action is not sustained and her character development is not as clear as her barely controlled emotions and conflicted interior dialogues. Roth provides readers with an irreverent, insider look into two cultures and a portrait of a character trying to define herself in these very different environments.–Jack Forman, Mesa College Library, San Diego
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Matthue Roth portrays the thoughts of a teenage Jewgirl in stunning fashion. Hava is a character whose haywire realizations are completely understandable and make the novel even more cool and fun. --TeensReadToo.com

Readers will appreciate the look into Hava's modern Orthodox Jewish culture and beliefs. --Publisher's Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Push (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439691893
• ISBN-13: 978-0439691895
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #445,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthue Roth is a Hasidic author, slam poet, and screenwriter. His first book, Never Mind the Goldbergs, was an ALA Popular Paperback in Religion and a NYPL Best Book for the Teen Age. He's also written a memoir about becoming Orthodox (Yom Kippur a Go-Go), a supermodel spy caper (Candy in Action), and a cover of Ferris Bueller's Day Off starring Russian Jewish immigrants.

By day, he is a video game designer. Matthue lives with his family in Brooklyn, and he keeps a secret online diary at www.matthue.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great book! January 23, 2005

By Robert Wisdom

Format:Hardcover

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too November 26, 2006

By TeensReadToo

Format: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 Read more ›

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Hard Not To Love This Unique Teen Heroine May 9, 2005

By Amy Senk VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hava Na-read-a March 24, 2005

By Little Willow

Format:Hardcover

Never Mind the Goldbergs by Matthue Roth is an engrossing novel about a girl named Hava. Hailing from New York, Hava is a high school student that is both an Orthodox Jew and, in her own words, a little punk rock. She also happens to be an actress, though not completely by choice.

Though the first chapter starts on the last day of school, the second chapter gives the reader some background: After being randomly discovered outside of a store, she's cast in an Off-Broadway play. Not thinking much of herself as an actress, she easily returns to her normal routine of friends, family and school after the play ends.

On the last day of the school year, she is called into the principal's office. She thinks she is going to be scolded for acting out earlier that day. Instead, she is shocked by huge news: a new television comedy about a family wants her to play the older sister - and she starts on Monday. Immediately, her summer plans are out the window. She relocates to Los Angeles and has a total culture shock. The West Coast world is very different from her hometown, where everyone knew everyone. Hava discovers that living on her own isn't all that it is cracked up to be, and neither is the entertainment industry.

Never Mind the Goldbergs is far meatier than it first appears. Hava is a fabulous protagonist. Her attempts to find a balance between her religion and her work feel real, with her actions never making her a saint, but never making her into a bad girl either. She tries to make good choices for herself. She never does something just to stand out and get attention, nor does she try to fit in and conform. She simply is who she is. She is a flawed, realistic character, and that's what makes it work. I definitely recommend this book.