'She needed someone to fall in love with, someone who would destroy the channels through which her life flowed, allowing her to irrevocably change direction'.
I never had such a bad feeling about a book character. Delilah, the woman main character of The Saturday Wife by Naomi Ragen, an author I've read previously, is a kitsch Jewish Emma Bovary. An enchanteress, with no sense of worth and direction, keen to jump on the wealth ladder but unable to because of her social status and, I dare to say, intelligence, she is despicable. No values, no evil per se either, an opportunist with fake expectations and not a pinch of self-awareness. A victim of an environment of overzealousness and permanent suspicion of human nature that she cannot escape. A vulgare creature hungry to achieve a little bit of normality while acquiring some top brand clothes and bags.
Although going through the yeshiva schools, she couldn't care less about the modesty values but unable to make the big step of leaving the stringencies of her Orthodox community.
The story in itself makes sense: a girl from a modest religious background, without a status, trying to fulfill the dream of a good Jewish wife marrying up a rabbi - which given her yichus - lineage which determines at a great extent the chances of finding a good match - did great. But she wants more, she wants the big mansions with swimming pool and expensive jewellery when all she got was a very modest apartment in Bronx, within walking distance from the shul - synagogue - where her husband with a modest intelligent despite his illustrious background - was supposed to take over from his respected grandfather. Being a rabbi's wife - a rebbetzin - means lots of social and moral obligations that she can hadly fulfill. She is pushing her poor husband, Chaim, to take the position at Ohel Aaron Congregation in Swallow Lake, where no serious learned man would go. But the drama continues as she wants more and is never happy. Her major project, besides befriending the convert American wife of a Jewish Russian con magnate from the fictional Turdistan - which in English urban dictionary means toilet or latrine - is to donate luxury bags to victims of terror attacks in Israel (can it get any more idiotic?).
On one hand, there are a lot of truths to be told about the stringencies of the Orthodox Jewish life, the limited place of the women and the huge expectations done, about the absurd fences around the Torah - including in terms of head covering and women modesty in general - built by rabbis in the last decade, and the striving for excess among successful Jewish families - with safari-themed bar/bat mitzvas and other excessive investments which are rightly 'the opposite of everything Judaism valued and cherished and taught'. Those considerations are slipping into the story, with a mix of references of various kinds - both Jewish and non-Jewish - but the author's voice sounds too doctored and although available are disturbing the narrative. Why not introducing those issues as part of the story itself?
On the other hand, the characters themselves and the story are coping with way too many loopholes. There are characters coming and going into the story, as consistent as thin as piece of paper. There are a lot of incoherencies of the behaviors of the characters as well. Delilah is living in an Orthodox community and barely covering her hair? She is a mother living in an Orthodox community and can she so easily just escape being part of various motherhood circles which are so common and hard to escape? Her in-laws are completely absent which given their status is hardly realistic. For both Chaim and Delilah, their family connections seem to loose that you might think both of them are in fact recently returned to religion not born religious. After having a boyfriend - something inconceivable in the religious world, but necessarily impossible - and even having intimate relationships with him she is repeting while praying during the screening of a Star War episode in a public movie theater? And all the secular references - including Delilah's penchant for Broadway musicals - are so easily taken, no regrets, no second thoughts as she grew up listening to Britney Spears instead of Shabbes niggunim all her life. And so on and so on. Last but not least, my purchased Kindle edition has embarassing mispells.
To be honest, I've expected more coherence from a well-aclaimed author. Her truths are good for a non-fiction book or an article about women in Orthodox Judaism - I agree with from many points of view. I met women behaving like Delilah at a certain extent and now I can understand them better, but the character she ends up with is too much and doesn't make sense both humanly and from the literary point of view.
Overall, was disappointed about The Saturday Wife and I can hardly give more than a 2.5 rating. However, would explore more of Ragen's books soon as her ideas are too interesting to not follow up, by giving another try to her works.
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