Jerusalem-based newspaper columnist Mann recounts her struggles
with men, procrustean religion, drugs, sex, motherhood, breast
cancer and the loss of loved ones.Employing the present tense
throughout - perhaps to add an urgency that the narrative doesn't
always deliver - the first-time author reveals a profound sadness
at her center. The daughter and granddaughter of prominent rabbis,
Mann rebelled as a teen with drugs and bad boyfriends. Reeling out
of a troubled relationship with a druggie, she decided to move from
London to Israel, where she studied midwifery and was attracted to
the most fundamentalist form of Judaism she could find. She married
a Hassidic scholar and adopted a pious lifestyle that puzzled even
her father, a more moderate Jew. As she desperately sought
happiness, she found herself increasingly repelled by her husband
and his ways. Then a hunk of a handyman came to remodel the
kitchen. Leers turned to frantic, clawing, biting sex - there is
much explicit detail about her romps with this kitchen aide and
with other lovers - which, of course, eventually led to the
dissolution of her marriage and anguish for their three children.
Later, another relationship with another slovenly drug addict went
awry, but not before the author describes some luscious nubile
bodies on a nude beach with nipples "soft and pink like candy."
Lying on that same beach, she felt a lump, learned that she had
breast cancer and endured surgery, chemo and radiation. Along the
way, her father died, then her mom, in most disturbing fashion. The
author then decides it's time to reunite with her sister,
institutionalized back in England with Down's syndrome, whom she
hasn't seen in 20 years. She vows to visit once a year from now
on.A woeful life, related in prose that's largely hollow and
unremarkable. (Kirkus Reviews)
Brutally honest, beautifully written, THE RABBI'S DAUGHTER is the compulsive story of a woman trying to find love, and struggling to make peace with her faith, her parents, and ultimately herself.
Reva Mann was a wild child. Granddaughter of the Chief Rabbi of Israel and daughter of a highly respected London Rabbi, she rebelled strongly and so began a desperate search to discover who she was. In a whirlwind of sex and drugs, Reva strove to leave her strict family life behind her and find her own path.
When, years later, Reva decides she wants to return to her Jewish faith, she leaves London and enters a woman's yeshiva in Jerusalem. Driven by a strong yearning to return to a higher level of spirituality, she is determined to find a strictly orthodox holy man to marry and have children. So Reva begins a new life, wanting to suppress her former desires and needs, and to find her way to God.
In this honest and often shocking memoir, Reva presents to us the secret world of ultra Orthodox Judaism. Fascinating insights into modern day matchmakers, ritual baths, sexual codes of conduct and Jewish practice are depicted, and Reva's journey is brought to life in stunning detail.
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