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Loading... Disobedience: A Novel (original 2006; edition 2007)by Naomi Alderman
Work InformationDisobedience by Naomi Alderman (2006)
  
No current Talk conversations about this book.  robfwalter | Jul 31, 2023 |    ) blueskygreentrees | Jul 30, 2023 | Anyway, it was an interesting story and I don't regret the time I spent listening to the book. If you're interested in learning about being a closeted lesbian living in the orthodox Jewish community, it's definitely worthwhile. (  ) amcheri | Jan 5, 2023 | I’ve read two other books by Naomi Alderman, a Doctor Who story and a novel where all women have the power to strike down their enemies, and enjoyed them both. Disobedience is not sf; it’s a closely observed story of a Jewish woman returning to London from New York after her rabbi father’s death, and becoming simultaneously enmeshed in and rejected by the dynamics of the Jewish community in which she grew up, where the new rabbi is her cousin who has meanwhile married the girl she loved as a teenager. The dynamics of grief and disruption of a conservative community are very well described; the Hendon synagogue isn’t quite the Satmar sect of Unorthodox, but that actually means it is recognisably closer to the Irish Catholicism that I experienced growing up. Recommended. (  ) nwhyte | Dec 27, 2022 | Interesting - Sara's review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2289818976 and the comments on it led me to the Guardian article where Naomi Alderman says, "I thought I’d written a book about faith, but it turned out that I’d written a book about lesbians." I thought I was reading a book about lesbians, but it turned out I was reading a book about faith. I guess it's both. Here's the review https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/24/naomi-alderman-disobedience-faith-... ( ) KWharton | Nov 11, 2021 | no reviews | add a review
Awards
*NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, STARRING RACHEL WEISZ AND RACHEL MCADAMS *AUTHOR OF ONE OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S FAVORITE READS OF 2017 When a young photographer living in New York learns that her estranged father, a well-respected rabbi, has died, she can no longer run away from the truth, and soon sets out for the Orthodox Jewish community in London where she grew up. Back for the first time in years, Ronit can feel the disapproving eyes of the community. Especially those of her beloved cousin, Dovid, her father's favorite student and now an admired rabbi himself, and Esti, who was once her only ally in youthful rebelliousness. Now Esti is married to Dovid, and Ronit is shocked by how different they both seem, and how much greater the gulf between them is. But when old flames reignite and the shocking truth about Ronit and Esti's relationship is revealed, the past and present converge in this award-winning and critically acclaimed novel about the universality of love and faith, and the strength and sacrifice it takes to fight for what you believe in--even when it means disobedience. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.59)
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Wikipedia in English
3
I imagine that if you asked Naomi Alderman what the book was about while she was writing it she would have embarked on a thirty second explanation and somehow found herself still talking ten minutes later. It is at once a very simple story and wonderfully complex. The writing, too, has hidden depths and shows a level of control that is very powerful. There is wit, heart and just enough plot to keep the pages turning.
Ronit, the protagonist, is very sympathetic and well-drawn and the stifling Jewish "village" that Alderman describes added flesh to the bones which I must confess I only ever saw from the bus when passing through certain North London suburbs. (