The Rabbi's Daughter (Hardcover)

by Reva Mann (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In her misspent youth, Mann, a journalist and daughter of a prominent London rabbi and granddaughter of a chief rabbi of Israel, was hooked on drugs and promiscuous sex, which led to hepatitis B infection and an arrest for drug possession. In her 20s, she went to Jerusalem, where again she disappointed her progressive Orthodox parents by marrying a born-again American Jew who had become an obsessive and separatist Hasid. Unhappiness and tragedy were Mann's constant companions: a retarded sister; the abortion of a brain-damaged fetus; the unraveling of her passionless marriage and her disenchantment with Hasidism; breast cancer; and her elderly widowed mother's suicide. Mann parades unsavory aspects of her behavior: she and her boyfriend, Sam, knowingly have raucous sex in earshot of her anxious children, and after Sam's brother is killed in a terrorist attack, Mann is upset that Sam isn't paying enough attention to her at the burial. While Mann's clever, fast-paced memoir offers an intimate glimpse of Orthodox Judaism and aptly demonstrates the human yearning for redemption, some of the events she recounts strain credulity, particularly her deflowering in her father's synagogue and a lesbian affair in an ultra-Orthodox women's yeshiva that is overheard by a religiously zealous tattletale. (Nov. 6)
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Review
“Sometimes shocking, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes very funny, Reva Mann’s story is a fascinating glimpse into a hidden world.”—Elle

“Mann tells her story with genuine humor and self-deprecating wit, winning the sympathy of even disapproving readers. Mann’s coming-of-age story speaks directly to young people struggling with questions of family, faith and identity.”—Booklist

“A gripping book, harrowing and devastatingly honest, as well as an important book.”—Naomi Alderman, author of Disobedience, winner of the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: The Dial Press (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385341423
• ISBN-13: 978-0385341424
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #551,521 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pulp fiction, December 11, 2007

By	Perry Patetic (Boston, MA , USA) - See all my reviews

This book is a self-centered memoir of an oversexed, confused woman who seems to delight in the sordid details of her adolescent life (which persists well into chronologic adulthood) and in blaming her problems on everyone except herself. Although the author claims on You Tube that she has changed names in order to avoid embarrassment, the descriptions are astoundingly thinly concealed, rendering it immediately apparent who her parents (a respected English Rabbi and his wife) were. Of greater concern, one wonders how her 3 children responded to reading of their mother's sexual adventures and fantasies, which she describes as occurring in a variety of places ranging from fecally soiled toilets to the sanctity of her father's synagogue. The idea, proposed by the author, that this book somehow informs the reader of the Jewish Orthodox world is preposterous. It is an astoundingly self-centered, blinkered, publicity-seeking "memoir" of a Rabbi's daughter with sexual, addictive and and other dysfunctions that can be summed up in 2 words---"total trash."

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing yet Disappointing, June 6, 2008

By	Charmed Life (NJ) - See all my reviews

I finished this book in a day and found it very hard to put down.
It reads as the memoir of a woman who grew up in a religious Jewish household, left the fray to lead a lifestyle of sex and "liberation" and returned to join the ultra-religious Hasidic community. The book promised to highlight the struggles a woman faced in choosing between a religious lifestyle and a non-religious one. And that is my biggest issue with the book. The religious lifestyle she describes consists of a joyless virtually loveless existence full of empty rules, stringencies, and empty relationships. The "non-religious" lifestyle she chooses consists of adultery, promiscuous sex, drug use, lesbianism, more drug use, and more promiscuous sex.
I had truly wanted to relate to the author, as I am a (mostly happy) Orthodox woman myself, but I do question what "life on the other side of the fence" might be like from time to time. I found it impossible to do so for two reasons. First the author's experience of Judaism was skewed, extreme, and not an accurate glimpse of mainstream Orthodoxy. Second, her non-religious lifestyle disgusted me and I have a hard time believing most secular people engage in half the things the author happily did in her pursuit of a "non-religious" way of life.
Like some other reviewers I found some of the incidents related strained belief. A woman who repeatedly professes to love G-d so much she joins the most extreme and ascetic Orthodox branch happily recounts how she lost her virginity in a synagogue of all places.
Her emotions just did not ring true to me. Nor did I really get a sense of genuine spirituality coming from the author.
I hope anyone reading this book realizes the views of this author are extreme and her experiences are not shared by the majority of Orthodox Jewish women. Some of us do live balanced, fulfilling and happy lives, and interact with genuinely caring and loving people.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A spiritual journey of extremes, December 27, 2007

By	Jerry Marcus (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

Reva Mann is a gifted writer whose painful struggle cries out on each page of The Rabbi's Daughter. Her ability to express her feelings succeeded at times in eliciting the empathy of this reader - and contributes to the greater understanding of anyone who questions religious dogma.

Unfortunately, what is also apparent in this book is Mann's inability to understand the sincerity of her father in his own religious beliefs and approach to religion. Her father did not feel the need to wear his religion on his sleeve - nor to remove himself from the modern world. As much as I empathized with Mann's pain, I also think that as a Rabbi's daughter, she should have been more understanding that her father was a Chief Rabbi's son, who no doubt also faced conflicts as he searched for his own identity. Perhaps this is the type of wisdom that only comes with maturity, if at all.

I hope that Reva Mann has joy in her life, and that learning to live with doubts rather than absolutes gives her some comfort and happiness. I also hope she continues to express her many feelings in future works, that I look forward to reading. (Jerry Marcus is the author of four novels, including the just-published Broken Trust - The Murder Of Basketball Star Jack Molinas)