David Hopan

I'm still haunted by this book and the depth of its intelligence. Areyah Eden is a devout Brooklyn orthodox Jew when his family moves to Zion Hills, FL the summer before his senior year. His life goes from black and white to technicolor instantly. He is admitted to a prestigious Jewish high school - with girls, unlike his yeshiva at 'home' and despite lacking some science and math knowledge, he keeps pace with the intellectual elite in English and in Jewish religious studies. Where he show more struggles to keep pace (at first) is in the social life of his peers. Clearly this new community is not as stringent in following Jewish religious practice and it is an adjustment for his parents as well. These are the elite, the privileged, the rich - all foreign to the Eden family. Noah lives across the street - his age, golden boy, primo athlete and nice enough to include Ari (he starts to call himself) in his popular social circle. There Ari meets Amir, Oliver, Rebecca, Evan and Sophia. The last two have the most impact - he falls in love with Sophia and a rivalry with Evan. This is a fast crowd: sex, drugs, alcohol - all strictly forbidden in faith, but the way they flaunt that draws Ari and soon he is forsaking his family and his faith and joining right in. Group dynamics are interesting - he never fully feels a part of things. This sounds like a classic YA novel, but it is definitely for adults - the ability to examine the inner workings of your mind, heart and soul, (and others', for that matter) are at the core of this one life-changing, pivotal year of Ari's life. Counted off in months by chapter, we see the way Ari begins to shed his old life but struggles to replace it with what is true. The months also reveal Evan's disintegration - a young man scarred by tragedy but seeking desperately, at the danger to and expense of others. Manipulating some of the events is the character of Rabbi Bloom, the top school administrator. In trying to develop these students, especially Evan to their fullest intellectual potential, he sets some pivotal dynamics in motion that have devastating consequences. show less

“Boychick in the Hood” is the title of the review in the book section of the NY Times this past weekend. If you read the review you might be as conflicted as I was about delving into this novel. It is a poignant coming-of-age story about a devout Jewish high school student whose plunge into the secularized world threatens everything he knows about himself. The world in question is a strict Orthodox enclave in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and the narrator is a teenage student transplanted into show more a “Modern Orthodox” yeshiva when his family moves to Florida. When his neighbor, the academy’s golden boy takes him under his wing his whole world changes. Part thriller, part religious inquiry, part love story, and part darkly disturbing, I think this is a novel families with teenagers might want to read together. show less

This one grew on me the more I read. I get tired of dark academic books reading so childish, I know they are in school, but tell it to me like I'm not. This one has a much more enjoyable tone, and focuses on a Jewish school group and the complexities of their relationships across class and academic ability. It gets dark and a little supernatural (almost?). I really enjoyed this.

I was pleasantly surprised with this one!! I absolutely adore The Secret History and while I'm not sure if it's a fair comparison, (their only similarity seemed to be something tragic happens to a group of young people which happens in like...every book) that's what got me to read The Orchard, so whatever works!
This was definitely a long one, not in a descriptive wordy kind of way, but it definitely covers a lot of time, and you can tell. Hopen kept me interested for all 500 pages, which show more isn't an easy task. The entire story seemed to take place within the last 100 pages, which was a little strange, but the first 75% of the book somehow didn't feel lacking. The writing wasn't necessarily lyrical, but it was still beautiful and exaggerative and stayed in line with the Literature-loving protagonist. At times the secondary characters blended together and felt a little bit 2 dimensional, which was unfortunate & will keep this book from getting that last star, but any story that breaks my heart gets a high rating.
It's an easy and even 4 stars for The Orchard. show less