The Same Embrace: A Novel [Paperback]

Michael Lowenthal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1999

The Same Embrace tells the powerful story of two young men struggling against a heritage of intolerance and silence. Twins Jacob and Jonathan were inseparable while growing up in their second-generation-American Jewish family. As adults, though, they are almost hopelessly estranged--Jacob is a gay activist in Boston, while Jonathan lives the strict, disciplined life of an Orthodox student at a yeshiva in Jerusalem. In the shadow of a tragedy, Jacob travels to Israel in the hopes of finding common ground with his brother. But his twin's new assurance and faith force Jacob to reexamine his own sexual and religious identities, as well as his place in his complex and haunted family history. An ultimate confrontation between the brothers lays bare the shattering secrets of a legacy that began during the Holocaust. Alternating between the present and Jacob's childhood memories, The Same Embrace moves gracefully from anger and alienation toward forgiveness and acceptance. A striking debut, this novel depicts a quintessentially American search for belonging.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The endless conflict between sameness and difference is at the heart of Michael Lowenthal's novel The Same Embrace, in which identical twins Jacob and Jonathan battle themselves and one another to become individuals even as they are inextricably linked through genes, family, and history. Empathetically close as children, the brothers begin to separate in their teen years, most decidedly by Jacob's decision to come out and Jonathan's turn to Orthodox Judaism. The conflict of brother against brother, biblical in its resonance yet filled with contemporary image and idiom, is also the grounding that allows Lowenthal to write about his main concern: how humans must create themselves as individuals while remaining part of a larger social fabric. Just as Jacob and Jonathan wrestle with one another over questions of sexuality and religion, The Same Embrace embodies two distinct and not usually conflated genres: the novel of gay identity and the Jewish family novel. Like the brothers' move towards reconciliation, one of the novel's strengths--along with its understanding of the human heart--is its ability to join these themes into a unified, extremely satisfying entirety that both moves and enlightens us. --Michael Bronski --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The shadow of the Holocaust looms over this affecting first novel, a tale of identical twins who must come to terms with their peculiar bond and its limits. Jacob Rosenbaum, openly gay and mourning the recent death of his best friend, travels from Boston to Israel in order to persuade his brother Jonathan, newly and fervently orthodox, to leave the yeshiva where he is studying and return to the U.S. More than religious and sexual differences keep the brothers apart. Both need to overcome the legacy of their stern rabbi grandfather, who pitted them against each other in wrestling contests when they were boys (matches that Jacob always won). Jacob's struggle to reconcile with his brother is as much an account of a family history of estrangement and secrets as it is about the contradictions of being twins: two people, physically alike, so close they dream the same dreams, who simultaneously long to assert their individuality and return to their comforting singular identity. Lowenthal has a keen eye for details: a warm office has a scent "like the custardy smell of cotton towels removed from a spinning dryer." A beautiful boy has a "peach pit of muscle" at the corner of his jaw. He avoids the cliches of a coming-out novel, and his assured dialogue, smooth weaving of the narrative back and forth in time, and layering of cultural, sexual and religious themes coalesce into an impressively crafted, moving debut.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Plume (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452279755
• ISBN-13: 978-0452279759
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,362 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I know I'm Not The Only Gay Jew, July 12, 2000

By 

J. - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Same Embrace: A Novel (Paperback)

As a gay jewish man who grew up outside of Boston, what can I say...I LOVED THIS BOOK!

Okay, I am an only child, and this work centers on two twin brothers, not something I thought I could relate too, but the basic emotions and search for love and acceptance cut through that.

Narrated by Jacob, the gay brother, we learn about teh close bond he shares with his brother Jonathan. ALthough they look alike, they are very different. In the end, Jonathan transforms from a party boy teen, to a devout Orthodox Jew in school in Jerusalem.

Jonathan can not accept his brother's homosexuality, and it made me wonder if he turned to religion in suppression of his own homosexual desires? Jacob sees he and his brother begin to grow apart intheir teens, and it is upsetting him.

What was revealed about the family's history in WWII in Nazi Germany shocked me, and that was when the book really kicks in. Jacob learns about an Aunt who was shunned by his Grandparents and I was completely thrown over!

This is a must read for any gay jew out there. And if you have ever been curious about jewish religion and history, regardless if you are gay or straight, I believe you will throroughly love this book!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brother to brother, January 18, 2003

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Same Embrace: A Novel (Paperback)

Reading this again four years after I first read it, I'm still amazed at the scope and impact of the story. "The Same Embrace" centers on Jacob, gay and Jewish, whose twin brother Jonathan has embraced Orthodox Judaism and now lives in Israel. While mostly about the struggle of the two brothers to reconnect after years apart, the book also deals with the legacy of the Holocaust, the impact of family secrets, and the essence of family. For me though, it is the story of the two brothers that resonates so clearly and brilliantly. And by having the brothers be so similar and yet so different, Lowenthal presents the reader with a fascinating portrait of what could almost be two halves of a whole: one man trying to bring together his sexuality and his religious beliefs. Even without this context in mind (whether it's intended or not), "The Same Embrace" is a marvelous, insightful, and ultimately joyous story that expands past the genre distinctions of Jewish fiction and gay literature to a wholly American novel of family.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down., June 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Same Embrace: A Novel (Paperback)

Now this is a good book. I don't share Lowenthal's perspective, so hopefully it's of some value that as a "general reader" I found this an utterly compelling read. He holds his own with my favorite classic novelists.