The Shiksa Syndrome: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Laurie Graff (Author)
Key Phrases: rst time, New York, Kim Cattrall, Plantation Island (more...)

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.)
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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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (October 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767927613
• ISBN-13: 978-0767927611
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #513,717 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 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

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.

1 of 1 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

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Funniest..., November 27, 2008

By	Elmer Fud "Mystery Lover" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This was possibly one of all the funniest books I've read in a long time! The statement amongst Jewish women when they find "a Nice Jewish boy," is usually: all the Jewish men are taken by "goy" or a shiksah" (two Yiddish words meaning Non-Jewish woman). A question in the book being posed is Why?

This book was great for women of any denomination; however, there are only a few things only a Jewish woman could understand (but there is a glossary in the back of the book with all the definitions). One plot is that a Jewish girl is pretending to be a "Shiksa," to get the attention of a Jewish man who appears to be over Jewish women because they're considered to be J.A.P.'s (Jewish American Princesses').

The first time they met or more like she tried to meet him, she was dragged by her best friend who is a shiksa who believes that Jewish men are absolutely PERFECT (if only that were true, LOL!). The first time Aimee (the main character, the Jewish woman) tried to meet "Josh," a Jewish guy she was pining over, she looked "too" Jewish, he was looking at her best friend, Krista (the shiksa.)

After a makeover that went wrong she looks like her best friend... the perfect Skiksa; her brown hair is now red and brown eyes covered by glasses became green contact lenses.

When the girls go to another mixer "for Jewish singles," she runs into the same man as last time ("Josh,") however, he has no idea they've met before. Meanwhile, Krista has found herself surrounded by half the Jewish men in to room, and leaves with the phone number of real mensch (a good man).

Then Aimmee pretends to be a shiksa and eventually plans on telling Josh...

The rest MUST be read...

This was a wonderful comedy for all denominations... Enjoy the laughs, I did, in one sitting!!