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Although her husband, Daniel, keeps kosher and observes the Sabbath, he does so "mechanically," with none of the joy that marked Deena's childhood religious celebrations: "What did remain were the things she couldn't do." Nonetheless, they have been together for seven years before trouble appears. In this case, trouble takes the form of a leggy blonde temp from Daniel's office, a Southern-accented would-be Miss America named Jill. She is, they agree, "fun," in a way none of their other friends are. Together with Jill and her friend Ann the couple tries skiing, takes up dancing--and then Daniel falls in love. As their relationship falls apart, so too does Daniel's attachments to the forms of his faith. He breaks the Sabbath, stops wearing his yarmulke, and starts eating shellfish: "He'd accept no burdens, not Jewishness, not marriage." Faced with the impending breakup, Deena must decide whether to retreat back into her past or forward into an unknowable future.
Abraham's clear-eyed, unsentimental novel is, more than anything else, about that choice: between the safety of childhood and the uncertainty of independence, between the religious life and the secular world. Flying over the ocean on her way to visit her parents, Deena dreams of a ship with Daniel and all her American friends on it, pulling away and leaving her floating alone in the waves: "She had to save her strength and learn to live in the water. She would become a fish." In Giving Up America, Pearl Abraham draws a subtle and compassionate portrait of marriage, divorce, and a woman at sea. --Mary Park
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition; First Printing. New book, unmarked and unread. Signed on title page with "signed by the author" sticker on front panel of dj.; Signed by Author. Seller Inventory # 4261
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. " With her highly praised debut novel, The Romance Reader, Pearl Abraham gave readers their first insider's glimpse of the Hasidic world from a female perspective and sensitively depicted the inner life of a young woman entering adulthood. In Giving Up America, Abraham directs her unerring and compassionate understanding of character to the subject of marriage, as she takes us further in exploring the differences in cultures and values of Hasidic and secular American life.When Deena decides to marry Daniel, who is an Orthodox Jew, Deena's father, a Hasidic scholar, opposes the marriage for Kabbalistic reasons: the numbers assigned to the Hebrew letters in their names add up to form the word "pain". Yet their marriage appears to be blessed. Together, they are restoring an old house, their dream house. Then Daniel brings home from work a young Southerner, who is training for the Miss America pageant, and her best friend. Soon cracks in the foundation of their marriage appear, throwing into question the values Deena grew up with and the notion of what "home" means. Elle described The Romance Reader as "that rare work of fiction, both a coming-of-age story and a brave, beautifully rendered expose of a hidden, insular world". With her new novel, Pearl Abraham makes good on Kirkus Reviews' promise that she is "a writer to watch": Giving Up America is a novel that puts her on the map as a writer who has arrived. ". Seller Inventory # 015685
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.5. Seller Inventory # Q-157322121X
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.5. Seller Inventory # Q-157322121x