The Shiksa Syndrome [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Laurie Graff (Author), Hillary Huber (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2008

shiksa: n. Yiddish 1. Term used to describe non-Jewish women 2. A quintessential blonde beauty 3. A Jewish boy's dream 4. A Jewish girl's nightmare

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the winning latest from chick lit–ster Graff (Looking for Mr. Goodfrog), Manhattan publicist Aimee Albert, who is Jewish and whose first love, Sam, died during 9/11, has just split with her goy boyfriend Peter McKnight. Desperate for a Jewish husband and children reared in the faith, Aimee, relying on an imagined Jewish male penchant for non-Jewish women (shiksas), loses mega poundage on a Depression Diet, straightens and dyes her dark hair red, pops in green contacts and becomes a Shiksa Barbie. Gentile co-worker Krista Dowd drags the new Aimee to a Jewish mixer, where Krista hooks up with Matt Goldman, a Jewish CPA, and Aimee meets GQ-cute Josh Hirsch, who runs LoveLoaves, a lucrative family business, and who only dates shiksas. For her part, Aimee soon discovers how lies can escalate into self-destruction and self-enlightenment. Graff's prose crackles with winning wit, making her potentially annoying conceit go down like a chocolate-covered macaroon. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

So does it really take a shiksa to get a Jewish man? Jewish Aimee Albert inadvertently finds out for herself. After she breaks up with her non-Jewish boyfriend, her family arranges for a makeover. Gone is the curly dark hair and glasses; in comes sleek, straight red hair and green contacts. When Aimee meets her non-Jewish friend Krista at a kosher wine tasting for Jewish singles, she meets handsome Josh Hirsch. Josh is under the impression that Aimee is not Jewish, so Aimee encourages this misconception, pretending to be a Protestant from Scranton instead of a native Jewish New Yorker. The lie begins to consume her as she removes every Jewish element from her apartment and her life. She knows this is wrong, but she is approaching 40 and must have a Jewish husband. But is it worth abandoning her Jewish roots to attain him? Graff’s latest is by turns funny and poignant as she explores religious identity and modern relationships and finds that sometimes Mr. Wrong may be more right than Mr. Right. --Patty Engelmann --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.; Unabridged edition (October 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433247011
• ISBN-13: 978-1433247019
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,301,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I'm not sure what book the other reviewers read, November 24, 2008

By 

Miss Jodella (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shiksa Syndrome: A Novel (Hardcover)

There is first and foremost a major flaw in the book and it is that the reader is expected to believe that Aimee, a for the most part, intelligent, career woman who prides herself on being a Jewish woman is just fine with the fact that Josh is self-prejudiced against Jews, and in particular thinks quite poorly of Jewish women. Now as the reader, I don't like this man and now I don't like the main character Aimee and I think if she is this foolish I don't care what happens to her. That is never a good sign when the main characters of the book are totally unlikeable.
I also had problems with some of the choices made in the writing particularly with transitions within chapters. Some of them were so disjointed, several times I had to look to see if the pages were stuck together and I missed something. Also, the fact that the parents were referred to as both Aimee's mother or father and then to their first names, sometimes in the same paragraph was awkward almost as if each was two different people. Very confusing. Then what is with the cover photo choice? Quite a few times in the book it is stated that Aimee transformed into a redhead. Why oh why did they make the girl on the cover very clearly a blond? If the publishing company wanted Aimee to be a blond just change it in the text. This book was not even particularly well-written. I'm really not clear what anyone saw in this book. It was a great idea, in theory, for a book but I think the major misstep was making Josh so prejudiced against Jewish women. I think that it would have been better to play up his attraction to the Shiksa without making him not like Jews or being Jewish, as a whole.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Initially Promising but Ultimately Very Disappointing, March 22, 2009

By 

Book Nerd "Faye" (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shiksa Syndrome: A Novel (Hardcover)

I picked up this book because it looked funny and appealing based on an initial perusal, and as a Jewish single woman, I thought I could relate. The author's style of writing is amusing and entertaining, but ultimately the "lessons" she has her heroine learn are too hypocritical for me to swallow. The whole premise of the book is that we are supposed to condemn Jewish men for deriding Jewish women and lusting after "shiksa goddesses" instead, to the point where a Jewish woman must pretend to be a shiksa to get a Jew! You can see the absurdity in that. Yet in the end (SPOILER ALERT), the author has her heroine "learn her lesson" by getting together with her non-Jewish boyfriend, who is infinitely preferable to the shallow, self-hating Jew she went out with as a faux shiksa.

To me, Aimee (the heroine) ends up doing exactly the same thing she criticizes Jewish guys for doing -- rejecting Jews in favor of a non-Jew. If that's the choice you make, then fine, but why does the author go through this whole subplot where Aimee has a self-actualizing moment of Jewish pride at a bar mitzvah . . . and then follows through by hooking up with her gentile ex! What kind of growth is that? Would it have been too much for her to find a Jewish guy who liked her for her? If I had no prior knowledge of Jews, after reading this book I would come away with the idea that all Jews are shallow, reject their own culture and people, and just want to assimilate.

Also, I was a bit offended by the Jewish mother stereotypes here. Aren't we past that Philip Roth/Woody Allen garbage? I know so many Jewish women who are fantastic wives and mothers. It would be nice to see that reflected in literature written by Jews, rather than have us perpetuate the same tired, offensive old cliches.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to love it, but..., May 7, 2009

By 

Jennifer L. - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shiksa Syndrome: A Novel (Hardcover)

I love Laurie Graff, but I agree with the previous reviewer that the book is very insulting toward Jews and overdoes it with the stereotypes. Aimee, the main character, is surprisingly passive. We're led to believe that she's a smart, sophisticated city girl, so it's disappointing and somewhat perplexing that she'd fall for an immature, prejudiced idiot like Josh. Aimee seems to think that Josh is wonderful, but the author never convinces us of this. I never got a full sense of what Aimee was about or what she really wanted. What's sad is I've met guys like Josh before and they are in fact quite prejudiced against Jewish women, but if that's the case, then why would Aimee, a woman who loves her own religion, be interested in this joker? As his "shiksa" girlfriend, Josh treats Aimee like a little pet he found in a store, rather than an actual breathing human being. His mindset seems to be, "look at the cute shiksa I caught, isn't she adorable?" And Aimee just goes along with it, just as she goes along with everything else in the book, instead of becoming disgusted and running away, which is what she should have done when she first got to know Josh. I think it would have been a much more interesting book if Josh had a neutral or unknown view of Jewish women, and Aimee wrongly assumes he'd only want a shiksa. I also wonder, as some of the other reviewers did, why Aimee became a redhead. Many Jews have red hair, so that's not an exclusively "shiksa" trait. The author should have done something more believable, such as give Aimee mousy brown hair, so she could dye it blond.