Items related to Giving up America

Abraham, Pearl Giving up America ISBN 13: 9781573221214

Giving up America - Hardcover

 
9781573221214: Giving up America
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
The author of The Romance Reader plumbs the cultural differences between Hasidic and secular American life through the story of one marriage, which begins to disintegrate after the husband, an Orthodox Jew, brings home a Miss America contestant.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Pearl Abraham's critically acclaimed first novel, The Romance Reader, follows a Hasidic girl caught between the strictures of tradition and the yearnings of her own heart. In her second book, the author tells a different kind of coming-of-age story: Giving Up America charts with heartbreaking assurance the disintegration of a marriage and the loss of faith that inevitably results. Like Abraham's first young heroine, Deena Binet grew up in a strict but loving Hasidic household. Yet when her family returned to Israel after a few years in the United States, Deena stayed behind, and since then has become nothing if not American. She works in advertising, learns to wear jeans and prides herself on remembering the names of rock bands. Even when she marries an Orthodox Jew, she does so against her father's wishes. A Hasidic scholar, he sees that the sum of the Hebrew letters of the couple's names equals the numerical value of the Hebrew word for pain, "which is what this marriage will bring you."

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

About the Author:
Pearl Abraham teaches writing at New York University.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherRiverhead Hardcover
  • Publication date1998
  • ISBN 10 157322121X
  • ISBN 13 9781573221214
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages309
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781573227520: Giving up America

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9781573227520
Publisher: Riverhead Trade, 1999
Softcover

9780704380974: Giving Up America

Quarte..., 1998
Softcover

9780704381193: Giving Up America

Riverhead, 1999
Softcover

9781517322120: Giving Up America

RIVERH..., 1998
Hardcover

9781573227667: Giving Up America 6ct

Riverh..., 1999
Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Seller Image

Abraham, Pearl
Published by Riverhead Hardcover (1998)
ISBN 10: 157322121X ISBN 13: 9781573221214
New Hardcover First Edition Quantity: 1
Seller:
Mad Hatter Bookstore
(Westbank, BC, Canada)

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

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 18.96
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 18.95
From Canada to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Abraham, Pearl
Published by Riverhead Hardcover (1998)
ISBN 10: 157322121X ISBN 13: 9781573221214
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
BennettBooksLtd
(LOS ANGELES, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.5. Seller Inventory # Q-157322121X

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 58.06
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.13
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Abraham, Pearl
Published by Riverhead Hardcover (1998)
ISBN 10: 157322121X ISBN 13: 9781573221214
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
BennettBooksLtd
(LOS ANGELES, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.5. Seller Inventory # Q-157322121x

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 58.06
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.13
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Abraham, Pearl
Published by Riverhead Hardcover (1998)
ISBN 10: 157322121X ISBN 13: 9781573221214
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Wizard Books
(Long Beach, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard157322121X

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 65.08
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.50
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Abraham, Pearl
Published by Riverhead Hardcover (1998)
ISBN 10: 157322121X ISBN 13: 9781573221214
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldenWavesOfBooks
(Fayetteville, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_157322121X

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 68.50
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Abraham, Pearl
Published by Riverhead Hardcover (1998)
ISBN 10: 157322121X ISBN 13: 9781573221214
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldBooks
(Austin, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think157322121X

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 69.03
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.25
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds