Customer Reviews

The Sacrifice Of Tamar

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The "Sacrifice of Tamar, not unlike the author's other two books, "Sotah" and "Jepthie's Daughter" takes place in an insular ultra-othrdox community. "Sacrifice of Tamar" centers mainly in Brooklyn and later moves to Isreal. In the opening chapters Tamar is raped by a blackman and later, the same night, has sex with her own husband. She becomes pregnant and is very concerend that the child may be the rapist's. (She keeps the attack a secret from all but her two closest freinds.) Later she is relieved when the baby born to her, a boy, is white. There's is suffuicient foreshadowing to predict some of what that might occur in years to come when her own son marries and his wife is pregnant with his child. Her characters in this book, Hadassah, Jenny and the Klovitzer Rebbie are believeable and likeable characters. Ragen writes with such authority it's almost as though she has witnessed much of what occurs in her books as good writers write from experience. The books is out of print and her other two novels are difficult to find in my library system owing to their popularity and not ther scarcity. Having read all three in recent weeks I am looking forward to her 4th, due very soon. Another book, "Romance Reader," by Pearl Abraham is also about insular Orthodox communites. Although not very well writen it too is worth searching out in your library.

Tamar Finegold has a secure and predictable life , as wife of one of Brooklyn's leading ultra-orthodox rabbis , but when she is violently raped by an intruder , all of this is thrown into turmoil.
She turns to two childhood friends , but keeps the secret from her family , until years later , a strange turn of events forces her to confront her past.

Naomi Ragen's books deal with the struggle of Jewish communities and the various threats and dilemmas that face them.
I had previously read The Covenant and The Ghost of Hannah Mendes.

This book shows both the tranquility and beauty of religious life and the dilemmas faced. It is beautifully written and shows how Tamar deals witht he trauma of her rape by an intruder and how her life and that of her family develops, as well as that of her two friends, one who has wisely embraced all that is good in Judaism , and one that has divorced herself from her roots.
A very compelling and easy read , that gives us a rare insight into ultra-orthodox communities and their ways of being and thinking.

I read alot. I love books. If I own them, I can't part with them. If I borrow them, I want to own them. If I check them out, I hate to return them. This is a book to own, and keep, and reread. It's a book to learn from and ponder. This book is smart, beautiful, sad and perhaps, particularly touched me as a mother. I really thought about the struggles of these characters...I was deeply moved by the richness and detail of them and the lives they lead. And that may be the key...even those of us who consider ourselves religious, or pious, or devout, or spirtual do not really wrestle with things...at least not like Tamar does.

Though I gave the book four stars, it is clearly not the book "Sotah" and "Jephte's Daughter" were. There was too much of getting the message across rather than true story-telling in "Sacrifice," and Ragen is usually a superb story-teller. I neither thought the book was racist nor denegrating of Orthodox Judaism, and I feel the readers who "saw" those elements in the book were projecting them because they were only reading the surface. The emotions and opinions of Tamar and the other characters are valid as far as what is happening in this particular story. Calling the author a racist is confusing her with her characters. I just wish things hadn't tipped so far into melodrama and polemic. I haven't found Ragen's characters to be such stick figures before; they're usually more three-dimensional.

the book in itself has a good story line yet it is too predictible and also has some parts where you just "get lost" in it...

being from israel also didnt help me understand some of the complex terminology of the book which made the reading a bit more harsh then fun.

Enjoyed Ragen's look into the orthodox Jewish
world and the conflicts which are created as
those on the inside try to live in our 20th
century. Very compelling story, read it
one evening. Felt that some of the story
telling was forced (when Jenny and the other
girl tell Tamar what happened after their
excursion the Greenwich), sort of a 'would
you like to know what happened, well let me
tell you.... Like Chiam Potok does in his
books, Ragen shows the joy that devoutness can
bring to life.

The writing in this novel is exquisite. However, any reader who isn't familiar with Orthodox Judaism will need a road map, a cultural dictionary and a Yiddish-speaking tour guide if they want to understand the book. The time line is also confusing as the story jumps back and forth between the present and the past.

Author Naomi Ragen writes beautifully about the culture of religious Judaism, but she never lets the reader in on the secret, never decodes the lingo so that they can walk in Tamar's shoes, which is necessary if the reader is going to be able to empathize with the character. For this reason, the book is less than satisfying and I would hesitate to recommend it.

This was the very first book that I've read by the author, and I thought that it was absolutely amazing! This was such a compelling story, I read it all in one night. I've read other reviews here, and I totally disagree that Tamar's rapist was black simply because the author was trying to re-enforce the image of a "black criminal" or because she is racist herself. I think the fact that he was black was very essential to the plot. Had he been white, then Tamar would have had an option to pretend that the baby was her husbands. No one would question it, her husband would never suspect it, Tamar alone would know the terrible secret. Because he was black this was obviously no longer an option.

In the begining of the book Tamar is seen as good but extremely weak woman. Ever since she was a child the decisions which directly affected her life, were made for her. First, by her parents, then by her husband. She has choices when faced with pregnancy, but can't decide herself, and still choses to do nothing. Her faith seems to be rewarded at first, but we see how that affects the rest of her life. I loved her transformation into a woman who truly accepts herself and takes control of her life. I would highly recommend this book.

A young Jewish women, newly married to a Rabbi, is raped by a blaack intruder who broke into her sister's apartment, and the same night not only does she hide the fact fromer her husband, she also has sext with him. When she finds out she's pregnant, but is not sure who's the father... She turns to two of her childhood friends to help her out, and eventually decides to keep the baby and the secret, which is kept until her son's wife suddenly has a black child, and she feels she has to finally take the blame, and find out - too late - she could have unburdened herself earlier with no unwanted results... Unlikely as this story seems to be, I think it shows 2 major aspects of American orthodox jews:

1) Their different lifestyles - of more or less observant Jews, with both their positive and negative sides.

2) More implrtant - women's lack f knowledge with anything to do with the most basic rules of their lives, which could cause so much confusion and misunderstandings...

I am not a complete fan of Naomi Ragen's style of writing, but from "Sotah" and "The Ghost of Hannah Mendes"I learned about a community foreign to me or a historical period. This book was too predictable, I do not like it when after the first chapter I stop being surprised. I thought the characters to be too limited and charicutaristic, the negative use of the "violent black genetic material" enoying.