Not my favorite of her books. The plot was engrossing, but the dialogue (ironically between the two characters who speak English, and not those speaking Yiddish) was odd and stilted, which kept me from giving it three stars. My favorite book by Ragen, " The Covenant," is so good, that all of her ...
My dream life! Picking up and leaving to live in Jerusalem! waiting for the family to join me there and never coming back! Ahh! That sounds amazing! But so unrealistic! I liked the characters. This is what we strive for, success...money...friends...Harvard education...big houses..big weddings..t...
This is a 4+ star book for me. It could have been a 5 star, but it fell a bit short for me.First off, I would like to say that this author is AMAZING. Her writing just sucked me in and kept me hooked. I felt like I was really there in Jerusalem living the life of this family. I learned so much ab...
It was sweet, so sweet, she (Jenny) thought, to be part of something bigger than yourself, to be joined together with a whole that accepted you and let you mingle your voice with theirs, your clapping hands with theirs. All her pent-up sorry and isolation welled up inside her small chest and flew...
Her many fans will welcome the publication of Naomi Ragen's first play, which premiered in July 2002 at Habima National Theater in Tel Aviv. It is based on a true story: a Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) woman, wife of a rabbi, mother of 12, leaves her home and stays with a friend. The community's ?modes...
I want to say something nice first. I know people- okay one person- who have been really inspired by this book. And I felt a few warm spots in my heart at various points. And Ragen had a few thoughtful insights about the value of family tradition. So that's why three stars, although I will now be...
Chains Around the Grass, by Naomi Ragen is a novel that is about family dynamics, expectations, resilience and so much more.David Markowitz is a Jew who has done what so many other Jews have done in the past, given up his Jewish identity and assimilated into the folds of America. He changed his s...
Police and army vehicles patrolled the roads, cordoning off streets and checking ID for blocks around. Milos had no choice but to park on the sidewalk and hope that the traffic tickets wouldn’t catch up with him until he was safely back in Krakow.He found Julia almost immediately. She was intervi...
Then the winds grew gentle, blowing the clouds away and bringing the clean bright days of Passover and spring. Before she would have dreamt it possible, the golden summer had come and vanished and preparations began again for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Succoth. The year had come full cycle, s...
“I’m supposed to be giving you a bath, but instead you’re giving me one!” she told the child with mock sternness. Shoshana crowed with happiness, her little hands flapping furiously as she churned up the bathwater. “Okay now, Shoshana Goodman! Enough! Soon it will be Shabbos. Ima has to finish pr...