Customer Reviews

Never Mind The Goldbergs

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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.

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

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.

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.

What a neat look into an unfamiliar world that somehow seems all too familiar--Hava's coming of age is incitefully and funnily brought to life by Roth. Don't miss out on sharing this slice of Hava's life.

A jaunty romp through the murky identity chollent that constitutes most people's inner monologue and Hava's relationship with the outside world. Quirky fun marked by occasional understated insight.

matthue roth is the most important voice in jewish literature today. he is our only hope for the future of this genre. he speaks to the outsiders, the disowned and the disenfranchised. roth tells us that it's okay to be alone and different, because we have truth, self-respect, and we know what is cool. in fact, the interminable struggle to decide who we are as people is well chronicled in each of his works. while his work is bittersweet, it ultimately conveys an optimism that only true bad boys and grrrls can comprehend.

the scarey aspect to his writing is how easy he makes it look.

this book celebrates the internal and external conflict and dynamics of coming of age in a place where one is a stranger, but where such stranger has been an outsider for her entire life. the heroine's strength shines through in this regard, and her struggles reflect a certain magical realism that makes sense in today's high-tech bizzarro world.

a must read for any true devotee of the principles of punk rock and hip hop, nevermind the goldbergs is such a good book that even johnny rotten could not be offended by the fact that roth parodied his seminal album in the title. the book stands alone, as it defines a personal but historical period of artistic angst in america.

In this addictive, page-turning novel, Roth tells the story of a seventeen-year-old girl named Hava, a diligently observant Orthodox Jew from New York who also happens to be a punk rocker and who also happens to have stumbled upon a starring role in a television sitcom filming in Hollywood.

A fast read and quite light-hearted to be sure, but within this light story are some of the most honest insights into religion that I've read in quite some time. Roth goes into meticulous detail about Orthodox Jewish rituals and mores....those who share Roth's upbringing and faith will find it deeply relatable, and those like me who come from a very different background will find it to be a fascinating glimpse into a culture they previously knew little about....a perfect example of how the more specific a piece of art is, the more universal it winds up becoming.

Not since the Kevin Smith movie "Dogma" have I seen an author deal with his religion in a way so humorous, reverent, irreverent and deeply sincere all at once. The book also reminds me of Daniel Clowe's "Ghost World", with the manner in which an adult male author seamlessly uses a teenage girl as the mouthpiece for his own unique views on the world. All and all, this is a delightful novel, a resounding success on more than a few different levels.

Hava is an Orthodox Jew who lives a tough life at an isolated private school - but now she's heading to Hollywood, where she'll be the only Jew on a TV show about a Jewish family. Her willful ways will change her life and make for complicated friendships in this lively, unusual story of a very modern punkish teen.

I enjoyed the charmingly disturbed heroine, and appreciated an updated view of New York teen orthodox life. Yet I finished the book with several kinds of disappointment. It's fun to see Orthodox teens are not what you might think. But the subsidiary message is that all other Jews are ignorant of their heritage and nonobservant. Truth is, Mr. Roth, many secular (and even atheist) Jewish young people study their Talmud, read Torah and understand history. However, like everyone including Orthodox Jews, they don't follow every law written down that might affect them. Overall, the story was compelling, but the heroine's conflict with her mother is introduced and resolved an an awkward and unconvincing way. Finally, excessive alcohol use, while apparently condemned in the wild Hollywood days, is winked at whenever Hava returns to the safety of the Orthodox world. Drunken teens don't have sex or do other dangerous things as long as they are with other observant Jews? I don't think so. Like the heroine, this book is not as good as it should be.