Reviewed by Long Nguyen for TeensReadToo.com
Yeah, Hava Aaronson is an Orthodox Jew.
Yes, she attends a pretty gritty Jewish private school, and her life seems pretty complicated at times.
No, you shouldn't assume anything about her for even one second.
Hava, a seventeen-year-old Orthodox Jew living in New York, is going to spend the summer in Hollywood filming for a television series about the "comedic life" of an Orthodox family. Little does she know that she is the only Jewish person in the cast of this show--about a Jewish family.
In his debut novel, Matthue Roth portrays the thoughts of a teenage Jewgirl in stunning fashion, giving the readers great dialogue as well as utterly believable internal monologue. Hava is a character whose haywire thoughts and coming-of-age realizations are completely understandable and make the novel even more cool and fun.
Complementing the hilarious narrative are the stream of characters Hava is forced to interact with and the situations she manages to get herself into. Roth portrays Hollywood life through the eyes of a devout Jewish girl raised in New York in an almost satirical fashion, yet it is dead on and only makes everything even funnier and keeps the pages turning quickly.
Along the way, readers learn more than they probably ever knew about the Jewish religion and culture. Roth is able to tell a great story and at the same time push through some food for thought to his readers about the overlooked religion, as well as comparison from secular and orthodox lifestyles.
Hilarious characters, embarrassing and awkward adventures, Shabbos at Blue Hebrew House in Berkeley, the filming process of a three month long movie [no jokes here, three months long], and the introduction of a new kind of voice from a different kind of heroine in this crowded world, is just a taste of the fun you'll have while reading NEVER MIND THE GOLDBERGS.
Yeah, Hava Aaronson is an Orthodox Jew.
Yes, she attends a pretty gritty Jewish private school, and her life seems pretty complicated at times.
No, you shouldn't assume anything about her for even one second.
Hava, a seventeen-year-old Orthodox Jew living in New York, is going to spend the summer in Hollywood filming for a television series about the "comedic life" of an Orthodox family. Little does she know that she is the only Jewish person in the cast of this show--about a Jewish family.
In his debut novel, Matthue Roth portrays the thoughts of a teenage Jewgirl in stunning fashion, giving the readers great dialogue as well as utterly believable internal monologue. Hava is a character whose haywire thoughts and coming-of-age realizations are completely understandable and make the novel even more cool and fun.
Complementing the hilarious narrative are the stream of characters Hava is forced to interact with and the situations she manages to get herself into. Roth portrays Hollywood life through the eyes of a devout Jewish girl raised in New York in an almost satirical fashion, yet it is dead on and only makes everything even funnier and keeps the pages turning quickly.
Along the way, readers learn more than they probably ever knew about the Jewish religion and culture. Roth is able to tell a great story and at the same time push through some food for thought to his readers about the overlooked religion, as well as comparison from secular and orthodox lifestyles.
Hilarious characters, embarrassing and awkward adventures, Shabbos at Blue Hebrew House in Berkeley, the filming process of a three month long movie [no jokes here, three months long], and the introduction of a new kind of voice from a different kind of heroine in this crowded world, is just a taste of the fun you'll have while reading NEVER MIND THE GOLDBERGS.
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