I was tempted to comment on Wendy Shalit's essay in last Sunday's NYT Book Review by pointing out that novels about Orthodox Jewish life are filed under fiction for a reason. Tova Mirvis says it better in today's Forward. Miriam (Bloghead) also has an interesting response at People of the Book.
1 comment:
I read "Ladies Auxiliary" and did not find it to be demeaning or critical of Orthodoxy at all. Perhaps it was because I approached it as a window into a world not my own that I saw it this way. I felt it dealt more with the oddities of human nature and that the community just so happened to be an Orthodox Jewish one...I never felt she said it ONLY happened in a Jewish 'hood nor did I take her goal to be slamming that community either.
I think an important question is this: can Orthodoxy be written about at ALL??? Can ANYTHING be written other than a glowing fairy tale that wouldn't be seen in one way or another as being critical or harsh? Another question is who, then, would be qualified and therefore "good" enough to write about it? ONLY a bona fide insider? An unbiased "outsider"? who absolutely could never gain credibility by writing about it?
Just some thoughts.
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