This one was about a tight knit female community of Orthodox Jews in Memphis Tennessee and its reaction to a newcomer. The males were around too, but this book is all about the women (hence the title).
While the theme and the message in this book were trite, the look into the Orthodox Jewish lifestyle was interesting. Too bad the plot was predictable and the "lesson" heavy-handed.
I did, however, find the point of view very interesting. The whole story was told by the voice of many, by the "we". I really liked that approach. It underscored the unity of the lifestyle, the herd mentality of the ladies and it threw into relief the few independent thinkers. It was very consistent with the theme of the book which is the tradition-bound majority vs. the free-thinking and sincere minority.
Because this story was so cliched and so predictable, I didn't find it as interesting as I did "Sotah" by Naomi Ragen--a book I really liked and found very memorable. But the religious observance of the Orthodox Jews is so fascinating in itself to me, that I hung on through the whole book all the way to the rather unsatisfying ending.
This book was worth reading. It was interesting. And totally clean. An impressive first offering from a lovely writer. A good book.
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