The Outside World
Marion Ettlinger [author photograph] New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. [8], 285, [13] pages. Inscribed on the time page. Inscription reads To Karen, Best wishes Tova Mirvis. Tova Mirvis is an American novelist. She is a graduate of Columbia College of Columbia University and holds an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University School of the Arts. Mirvis was the subject of a 2005 essay by Wendy Shalit entitled "The Observant Reader" in The New York Times Book Review which accused Mirvis, an orthodox Jew, of writing ostensibly 'insider' fiction (that) actually reveals the authors' estrangement from the traditional Orthodox community. Mirvis defended herself in an essay in the The Forward. Tzippy Goldman was born for marriage. She and her mother had always assumed she’d graduate high school, be set up with the right boy, and have a beautiful wedding with white lace and pareve vanilla cream frosting. But at twenty-two, Tzippy’s fast approaching spinsterhood. She dreams of escape; instead, she leaves for a year in Jerusalem. There she meets–re-meets–Baruch, the son of her mother’s college roommate. When Tzippy last saw him, his name was Bryan and he wore a Yankees-logo yarmulke. Now he has adopted the black hat of the ultra-orthodox, the tradition in which Tzippy was raised. Twelve weeks later, they’re engaged...and discovering that desire and tradition, devotion and individuality aren’t the easiest balance. Hilarious, compassionate, and tremendously insightful, The Outside World illuminates an insular community, marvelously depicting that complicated blend of faith, love, and family otherwise known as life in a modern world. From the best-selling author of The Ladies Auxiliary, a hilarious new novel about two Orthodox Jewish families brought together by the marriage of their children. Tzippy Goldman's mother has been planning her wedding since before she was born. Her four younger sisters want her to marry the crown prince of Boro Park. But Tzippy, approaching spinsterhood at the age of twenty-two, has other ideas. Tzippy has been on one too many blind dates in the lobby of the Brooklyn Marriott. She is hungry for experience and longs to escape the suffocating expectations of religious stricture and romantic obligation. Bryan Miller's family lives in a liberal New Jersey community. Like Orthodox Jews anywhere in the world, they spend Saturdays in synagogue. And like suburbanites anywhere in the world, they wake up on Sundays and take their kids to Little League games and stop for pizza on the way home. But to Bryan, this middle road looks more and more like hypocrisy. He longs for conviction, for the relief of absolutes. To his parents' bewilderment and horror, he trades in his beloved Yankees cap for the black fedora of the ultra-Orthodox. In the courtship of Bryan and Tzippy, and in the progress of their highly freighted love affair and marriage, Tova Mirvis illuminates an insular world, where ancient and modern collide. With warmth, originality, and remarkable insight, she considers isolation and assimilation; the fervor of the zealot, the doubt of the truly faithful; the hunger for freedom, the hunger for God; and the retreat into traditionalism that has become a worldwide phenomenon among young people of all religions. The Outside World is a marvelous evocation of family and community, and of the struggle to be religious in a modern world. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Orthodox Jews, Judaism, Wedding, Marriage, Engagement, Suburbanite, Little League, Bryan, Baruch, Yarmulke, New York Yankees, Ultra Orthodox, Religion, Tradition, Insular Community
ISBN: 1400041619
[Book #84948]
Price: $125.00