Disobedience

This was a book that deserves to be read and reread. The protagonist is a complicated woman who has been on a spiritual journey across years and continents. I learned a lot about the Orthodox Jewish community in London.

I don't usually read novels like this (I'm not sure what genre to assign it) but I loved it.

I enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting. It discusses lesbianism and Orthodox judaism. How can one be true to oneself and to ones faith? Is it possible to do both? How can we live with our choices? What about parents with different beliefs? How can an Orthodox father relate to a non-Orthodox lesbian child? It is an interesting book about the choices we make and religious faith. I was once a very devout catholic and I find books and novels about fervent believers interesting, especially when they consider GLBT issues. Speaking as a non-jew I believe this book is fairly respectful of Orthodox judaism. I think even those less interested in GLBT issues will find this interesting as a novel whose main subject is the relationship between a father and child. They will also learn more about Orthodox jews and their beliefs and day to day life. I'm making this sound like a dry textbook or treatise but it isn't. It is an interesting, well-written novel whose subjects are those I've mentioned above.

Alderman, Naomi. "Disobedience". Simon and Schuster, 2006. A Jewish Lesbian Goes Home Amos Lassen and Literary Pride "Disobedience" by Naomi Alderman is a beautiful book and it is a first novel. Ronit, the protagonist of the novel is a British émigré to the United States and living in New York. She returns to London, to her Orthodox Jewish community upon the death of her father. The rabbi, her father, was a beloved man and leader of a small middle-class congregation, and leaves a void with his passing. It is to be filled by Dovid, his protégé and nephew, who is sensitive and has been training for years. As children, Dovid and Ronit were close friends and together with Esti, a dreamy girl who has a romantic history with both of them, they grew to adulthood. Esti has married Dovid but longs for Ronit's touch. Here is the plot--an Orthodox Jewish woman is having an affair with a married man and she is also a lesbian. When she returns home, she upsets her community. The happenings in the book are familiar to the author. She was raised and still lives in the orthodox neighborhood of Hendon and this is the neighborhood she describes in her book. It is an island in the world of secularism, closed in, on itself, and afraid of the outside world while being dedicated to a strange form of British reticence. Ronit says that she had forgotten what she was returning to. The synagogue was a place for small cramped minds, dark and dank. It was a place of silence where the Jews are quieter than the gentiles and the women are quieter than the men and they are different from American Jews. American Orthodox Jews may think that they maintain a separate identity but they are constantly engaged in some form of communication with the world. They argue with the branches of liberal Judaism, they collaborate with Christian fundamentalists and they are active participants inside the poetical, educational and professional systems of the world in which they live. They have power, they are bold, and they demand to be recognized and to be respected. This is not the case in Great Britain. The Jews of Hendon are silent but their silence is not absolute and can be broken when necessary. Ronit manages to break that silence, albeit in whispers. Whispering is also silence but a different kind of silence. It is not so much the homosexuality or lesbianism that the whispering is about. We live in an enlightened world. The love between Esti and Ronit is treated respectfully and with dignity. It is not looked lasciviously or with salaciousness as it is in Orthodox Judaism, Alderman beautifully points out that being a Jew and being gay are invisible states. One doesn't see them at first and they are only revealed if the person wants to reveal the traits. "Outing" oneself is a choice and a decision just as is telling another about your religious beliefs. Alderman captures the spirit of the place she writes about with beautiful prose and with sensory images. When she describes Dovid's

Despite a few oversimplistic characterizations of the inhabitants of the provincial world of Hendon Orthodoxy, this book is brilliant. Few authors have captured the struggles of those of us who straddle these contradictory realities. Naomi Alderman has.