Customer Reviews

The Outside World

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Fans of Tova Mirvis's debut novel, "The Ladies Auxiliary," have waited impatiently for "The Outside World," a book about Jewish families in transition. Tzippy Goldman is a woman in her early twenties whose mother pressures her constantly to find a husband and settle down. After suffering through over forty failed dates, Tzippy goes to Israel where, ironically, she meets and falls in love with a man whom she admired as a teenager. The boy whom Tzippy once knew as Bryan Miller has been changed forever by his years of study in Israel. Bryan now wants to be called by his Hebrew name, Baruch, and he is no longer content to be "Modern Orthodox," like his family. He is now a "black hat Jew," following all of the commandments of the Torah to the letter, with no room for compromise. Baruch's parents and sister are uncomfortable with his transformation. They regard him as a self-righteous and condescending young man who no longer even pretends to fit in with their lifestyle.

Mirvis starts off her novel promisingly. She ably describes the many differences among Orthodox Jews that often lead to conflict instead of cooperation and understanding. She also nails the tremendous upheaval that making a lavish wedding causes in a family that cannot afford to pay for such an overdone affair. In addition, Mirvis astutely portrays the friction between parents and children, who often hurt one another without realizing how much pain they are causing.

However, as the book progresses, Mirvis goes off in too many directions. She flits from one troubled character to the next and from one plot line to another, but the various elements do not always mesh. We learn about Baruch's attempt to make it in the business world while retaining his religious fervor, Tzippy's decision to go to college, Tzippy's mother's depression, and her mother-in-law's search for spirituality and meaning in her life. As the narrative becomes more scattered, it becomes less compelling. If Tova Mirvis has written "The Outside World" with a tighter focus, it could have been a richer commentary on the challenges of being an Orthodox Jew in the twenty-first century.

I read this book as a satire of Orthodox Jewish Life in America. Everything she writes about it is true, but so exagerated! The author knocks both the Boro Park types and the Modern Orthodox equally. I grew up in a Modern Orthodox world and now live in the "black hat" world, and her descriptions are accurate down the last detail, but highlight the most negative aspects of both communities. The majority of people from both communities are committed to Judaism and to their fellow human, not people merely observing the laws from rote with no feeling or spirit.
There are no "heroes" in this novel. Unlike The Ladies Auxillary, where Batsheva was good and everyone else in Memphis portrayed as bad, in this book, each character epitomizes the worst characteristics of the typical stereotypes: Baruch, the insensitive "nouveau frum" son; Joel, who wants to blend in the outside world; Naomi, the spineless peacemaker; Shayna, who cares only about being accepted; Ilana, the rebel; Tzippy, who has no concept about why we are religious; and of course, Hershel, the typical dreamer on the verge of making it big! Of course I know people like these characters, but Tovah Mirvis has drawn a caricature of them, exagerated to bring out the worst. Just as her religious characters in The Ladies Auxillary are missing the spirit, the passion and the dedication to their religion, with the exception of Naomi and Baruch, these characters live it without any idealism or involvement.
The two communities have different values and priorities, but the differences are exagerated as well. They both keep the same Sabbath and holidays, the same laws between fellow human beings, the same basic Kosher laws, the same marriage laws, etc.
The book is extremely well written, and I have a hard time putting it down. Enjoy the book, just remember not to take seriously this portrayal of Orthodox life!

In response to a previous Orthodox Jewish reviewer, I just have to say that as a young, liberal, modern Orthodox Jew, I enjoyed this novel a great deal. I would be delighted to have my daughter (if I had one) read it. Tova Mirvis obviously knows the Orthodox Jewish world quite well. It's wonderful to read a novel about the world I live in, the details of which few writers truly grasp. It's not a perfect novel; there is a bit of stereotypical characterization, and the plot gets a bit thin at the end. I do quite like the end, though. I would definitely recommend this book. (I also have no clue what that previous reader was referring to when she said this book hinted at inappropriate things. Well, of course the characters have sex; they're married, aren't they? Since when were Jews scared to mention a married couple having sex?)

I very much enjoyed the story, and felt that I understood a lot of what the characters were going through. It helps to have some exposure to Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox, or you may get lost.

My only real complaint is the end of the story (don't worry, I'm not going to give it away). The characters are developing in interesting ways, maturing, etc. And then the book ends rather suddenly - many loose threads are never tied together, and there's no feeling of completion.

Maybe the author is leaving room for a sequel, and she couldn't figure out what direction it's going?

I loved this book simply because it captured feelings that I have felt, as an Orthodox Jewish girl in general, and more specifically as one who grew up in a modern Orthodox community like Laurelwood and married someone with a more "ultra-Orthodox" background. Through this book I was able to relive parts of our courtship, engagement, and the early years of our marriage, especially the parts photographs can't capture.

The characters in the book are people that I know. The feelings they feel are real. This is not a book that creates conflict and strife as a literary device as some have hinted, they reflect what those struggling to live Orthodox lives in the modern world actually feel. Each of these characters, though different, experienced feelings that me and others that I know have felt- the desire to fit in in a world where minute distinctions between people are magnified, a yearning for a greater level of spirituality, the desire to fit in with society at large, and the questioning of whether or not God actually cares. Most thinking Orthodox Jews experience this at one point or another.

Tova Mirvis has done a beautiful job of putting my world on paper. If anyone wants insight into the real world of Orthodoxy, this is the book for you.

Originally, I was attracted to this book by its cover and blurb, having never heard of Tora Mirvis before. As an Orthodox woman, I found the characters in the first part of the book, while not believable as real people, Orthodox or otherwise, good fun reading. However, the story starts going downhill once Tzippy and Bryan/Baruch become engaged. Tzippy's mother's neuroses are harder and harder to tolerate, not to mention her nebbish of a father. I've been to many, many Orthodox weddings in Brooklyn, and have yet to see any that are similiar to Tzippy's mother's ideal. Bryan/Baruch's family make you wonder why he's not living in a yeshiva dorm. Those two mother's deserve each other, it's not surprising that they were roommates in college.

As a native of Memphis, perhaps Mirvis felt driven to move the storyline to that locale, but everything that happens from that point feels as if you're reading a completely different novel. If only she'd stuck with the concept I thought she started with - the differences between two different types of Orthodox families!

Tova Mirvis' novel, The Outside World, is a sometimes, funny, sometimes poignant depiction of the many joys and conflicts that result from living in an Orthodox Jewish world. The outside world in this novel is not just the non Judaic world at large;it is also the smaller and narrower world of the liberal, modern Orthodox Jew.The conflicts that arise as the main characters collide with all these worlds is the basis of the novel.There are conflicts that arise out of religious duty and fervor colliding with assimilation and self-actualization. Other conflicts grow when liberal, watered down religion crashes with the letter of the law in Ultra Orthodoxy.There are conflicts in the Ultra Orthodox world when characters wrestle with doubt, temptation and complacency.......when the Biblical incantations ring hollow.........when the young seek some freedom through rebellion. There are conflicts that develop when traditional women's roles change through education. As the characters struggle to find themselves and stay religious in a modern world ,we are drawn into the story of the Goldmans and the Millers......Shayna, Tzippy, Hershel,Naomi, Joel, Bryan and Illana. They are tested as individuals and as families as they ultimately come to terms with all that faith, love and being an Orthodox Jew entails. From blind dates at the Marriot,to kosher Oreos to shopping for wigs,to preparing for Shabbos............Tova Mirvis brings the world of Orthodox Judaism into the light in a humorous, sensitive and realistic way.

Tova Mirvis's first book was much better and more entertaining. This is light reading and just so so literature. However, I found it boring and undeserving of some of the reviewers positive comments. The story deals with the tension between a more secular modern orthodox Jewish perspectivve on life and the ultra orthodox perspective. The promising son of a modern orthodox family gives up an ivy league education to pursue ultra orthodox studies. He marries an ultra orthodox girl much to his father's chagrin. His father is privately even less religious than his mother and observes Judaism in his home to please his wife. It is doubtful that he even believes in the existence of a God or the need to heed religious rituals which he believes to be superfluious. In families today there has been a return to greater religious observance by the children of more secular Jews. This has created tension in some families where a child will not eat in his or her nonobservant family home. This could have been an interesting novel, but it moved too slowly and was boring. I do not recommend it. I only finished it becaues I started it.

I haven't read Tova's first book, but I plan to after just finishing THE OUTSIDE WORLD, one of the warmest and most insightful novels I've read this year. To call her book merely a "Jewish novel" -- though Jewish it certainly is -- doesn't do this story about love, family, tradition and the conflict between the sacred and modern, justice. Tzippy and Baruch's courtship are the foundation upholding a fine cast of characters, each as wonderfully flawed as they are compelling. Mirvis brings a fascinating world to light in these pages; and her description of the Talmud as houses, or Tzippy and Baruch's anxious through-the-glove touching, are as universal as they are eloquent. THE OUTSIDE WORLD is a wonderful novel that should inspire a great deal of discussion about the nature of family and love.

Imagine reading 300 pages getting to know six major characters. You're primed and ready for some action, some conflict resolution, something. But instead, the book just ends. That's the experience of reading "The Outside World."

I understand that Ms. Mirvis may be planning a series of books based on the characters introduced here. Perhaps that could justify reading this novel, which comes across as a set-up for something else.

Yet even so, I don't know that I could be persuaded to read further in such a series if one is written. The characters in this book come across as very one-dimensional. Seems to me, if you're going to spend an entire fictional work setting up characters, then at least flesh them out and give them some complexity.

I read this for a book club, and all of us agreed that while the book might make good mindless reading for a summer vacation, it was not great fiction. The other women in my book club were very disappointed with this book. They said they expected better because they so enjoyed the author's first novel, "The Ladies Auxiliary" (which I never read).