Customer Reviews

The Shiksa Syndrome (Thorndike Laugh Lines)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

The novel started out with an entertaining enough idea but I had a hard time believing anyone could be so desperate and deceiving.

It's one thing to model yourself after a certain desirable typeset to attract attention as long as it doesn't change the core of who you are.

Aimee is a publicist and Jewish in New York and is ready to settle down and have kids and let her biological clock have it's way. She wants to find someone that is Jewish too so that the kids will be raised in the faith etc etc. The only way she thinks she'll find someone to help her with those goals are to pretend to be a Gentile and deny every aspect of herself. She does of course find someone and even though he's Jewish he doesn't seem to like Judaism very much.

I had a hard time getting through the book. The lies and mass amounts of deceit were difficult to take even if Aimee did get the boyfriend she was setting out to get. I'm not sure the guy was worth the stress. Yikes.

Overall this is a light and quick read which I really enjoyed. Aimee pretends to be a Shiksa (non-Jewish) to get the Jewish man of her dreams and when she finds it is harder to keep up the lie, she becomes honest with herself. By not pretending, she finds the love she was looking for was right there all along.

I read the book in less than a day. I was hoping for some personal insight in a "chick lit" book but found only cruel stereotypes of Jewish and Gentile women as well as the same stereotypes about Jewish men. I found the book boring as it focused on how "bad" Jewish women were to the male character in the book. A culture cannot survive if one gender - male or female - are the butt of jokes and looked at as inferior. It is not as if I really care if "mankind" continues as most people are greedy and selfish. JMNSHO.

When I first finished reading "The Shiksa Syndrome," I wanted to say that I didn't like it. I wanted to say that because it frustrated me. On far more than one occasion, I was arguing and groaning in irritation with Aimee Albert, the main character and the woman through whose perspective we read the story. Then I realized that more than anything, the book was effective. It engaged me and got me emotionally involved. Laurie Graff did her job and did it well.

Aimee is a Jewish woman who loves being Jewish, but her boyfriend doesn't seem all that into what being Jewish means to her. She decides, therefore, to find a Jewish man to date. But the more she looks around, the more she discovers that all the eligible Jewish men are dating non-Jewish women. Intentionally. So when she and her non-Jewish best friend Krista are at a kosher wine tasting and in walks gorgeous, rich, and Jewish Josh Hirsch, Aimee doesn't correct him when he assumes she isn't Jewish.

In fact, she sees this seemingly minor omission of her identity the linchpin of her success at keeping Josh for a boyfriend. Lies build upon lies, and Aimee's true identity is buried beneath the layers until she's not sure exactly who she is anymore--the shiksa (non-Jewish woman) Josh wants her to be, or the Jew she knows she is.

What I do take issue with in the book is that it presents the vast majority of Jewish men as completely uninterested (even self-hating) in being Jewish and finding a sort of status in dating a non-Jewish woman. It does focus on a very New York Jewish dating culture, with which I'm not familiar, so maybe some of it is regional.

I was annoyed with Aimee for her subterfuge and for betraying who she is. I was annoyed with Josh for being so dismissive about his Jewishness. But I fought and laughed and cried along with the characters, and kept thinking about the story long after I'd closed the cover, which is really at the heart of what makes a good read.

Aimee Albert works as a publicist in Manhattan. She also is very faithful to her religion as a nice Jewish woman. She and her boyfriend, Peter have been dating for a while. Yet Aimee is ready to start a family and doesn't know if Peter is the one. One... he is a Presbyterian and two...he isn't ready to settle down like Aimee is. Peter can't take the pressure and he ends things between them.

Krista is Aimee's friend and also a shiksa. A shiska is a non Jewish person. Krista and Aimee go to a party at Down. Aimee observes Krista getting all the attention and coming away with phone numbers and dates. Aimee meets a guy at Down. His name is Josh. He seems nice and someone Aimee would like to get to know but he seems to be only interested in non Jewish women.

For Aimee's birthday, Krista gives her a make over. Aimee couldn't look any more opposite from a Jewish girl. Krista also shares with Aimee how to act and talk like a non Jewish person. Krista and Aimee head out again to Down and this time Josh shows an interest in Aimee. They go out, all the time Josh under the impression that Aimee is non Jewish. The thing is that Josh, himself is Jewish. Oh what is a girl to do?

I liked the concept of this book and thought it sounded like a fun chick lit but unfortunately I found it middle of the road just ok. While I thought Aimee seemed like a nice person, I was a little disappointed that for someone who believed in her religion so strongly would give it up for a guy. I was really turned off by Josh. I found him to be very judgmental, considering the fact that he was Jewish and he didn't want to date girls that were. The rest of the characters were kind of boring. Overall, I liked the concept but could have been better and funnier.

Do Jewish men really prefer dating non-Jewish women? That's what Aimee, a Jewish girl thinks when her non-Jewish best friend finds lots of single Jewish men who seem to like the idea of a "Shiksa" or non-Jewish woman who is "willing to convert" to one who is Jewish. She meets Josh, a Jewish guy, at a Jewish singles gathering and lets him believe that she's a Shiksa. Aimee has just broken up with her boyfriend who happens to be a non-Jew, has lost a few pounds feeling depressed and had her hair colored red and straightened. What she really wants is to find someone to settle down with and raise a family, someone of her own faith, and decides to go about it in this unorthodox manner. Although this all sounds a little complicated, up to this point the story works.

The book started out by being funny and entertaining. It's a light romance type of book and should have been a very quick read. But about a third of the way through, the characters seemed less believable and the situations and outcome were much too predictable. For example the main character, Aimee, seemed to hold strong Jewish beliefs and a love of the Jewish culture and customs. But everything she did after a while seemed out of character, even for someone involved in such a charade. Had there been a few more twists and turns to the story it might have held my interest but as it was I put the book down several times over the next few days before I finally finished it. I needed more convincing that these characters could be for real. It just didn't seem feasible to me.

Laurie Graff's book was an enjoyable read. The plot was unique and the characters' personalities were very well-crafted. There were definitely moments when I caught myself laughing out loud. I highly recommend this book to someone who enjoys fictional novels based on relationships and love.