Stranger in the Midst: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery [Hardcover]

Nan Fink (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1997

A moving memoir of life change, this poignant and gracefully written work explores how one woman defied her upbringing by converting to Judaism in a quest for spiritual meaning. Born Christian, Nan Fink found her path to Judaism far more difficult than she had anticipated. She nevertheless found the courage and strength within herself to fulfill her dream. Fink tells her story with passion and candor.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Fink converted to Judaism despite the discouragement and resistance she encountered as a convert and as a woman, from both her Christian family and from the Orthodox Jewish community she wished to join. Fink chronicles her often difficult, sometimes exhilarating spiritual journey to conversion, which unfolded over a decade: she married a Jewish partner, with whom she cofounded the magazine Tikkun, and then left the magazine and her marriage, severing ties to the Orthodox way of life in order to find her own strength and identity as a Jewish woman and, eventually, as a teacher of spiritual Judaism. Fink tends to blame the Christian upbringing she eschews, finding fault with the same weaknesses she forgives in Judaism. Apart from this minor criticism, this is an important memoir of a woman who followed the call to conversion.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Disillusioned with the Christianity of her youth, involved with a Jewish man, and overwhelmed with a deep longing for Judaism, Fink decides to pursue a conversion. The layers of difficulty this decision engenders form the basis of her memoir. Fink's writing is as clear as her desire to be a Jew. But desire isn't everything. She carries readers along as she faces hostility from an Orthodox congregation, encounters difficulty finding a rabbi willing to convert her, and learns to live with a growing alienation from her family. Once a convert, Fink must deal with anti-Semitism from the outside and sexism from within. Eventually, she drifts away from Judaism, only to find her way back once more. This intimate account of spiritual transformation is told with both honesty and integrity. Readers will likely think about their own religious leanings after journeying with Fink on her personal odyssey. Ilene Cooper

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1st edition (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465082009
• ISBN-13: 978-0465082001
• Product Dimensions: 17 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,239,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars conflict-filled, interesting, March 12, 2011

By 

Michael Lewyn (Forest Hills, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stranger in the Midst: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery (Hardcover)

This is not a memoir by a convert who fell in love with Judaism and lived happily ever after. Rather, this book is about someone who didn't live happily ever after: Ms. Fink got a seemingly well-thought out Jewish Renewal conversion, a quickie and questionable Orthodox conversion, then married a Jewish man (who she cofounded Tikkun magazine with) and was pretty observant, then divorced him and dropped out of observance, and (at the time the book was written) was starting to gradually return to observance.

What caused her to bounce around so much? Based on what Fink writes, I suspect a combination of (1) her near-abandonment by her father during her teenage years (which could not have possibly been good for her marriages) and (2) her commitment to feminism and other forms of liberal egalitarianism (which could not have been good for her religious commitments, since she sniffs out sexism even in more liberal forms of Judaism, and disliked what she saw as chauvinism by some Jews she met).

Also interesting: her comparison of her Christian family and Jewish culture, which perhaps explain why she found Judaism so appealing. Just as many Jewish families moved to the US in the early 20th century, became small businessman, and gradually get wealthier, her family moved to California as covered-wagon pioneers in the early 20th century, became small businessmen, and got wealthier. She also sees parallels in family food cultures and in ambivalent attitudes toward meat-eating.

At any rate, this book is not a work of scholarship, but it is a fairly easy-to-read, fairly interesting depiction of one 20th-century life.