Status
Available
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Publication
New York : St. Martin's Press, 2007.
Description
Beautiful, materialistic Delilah Levy, married to a young rabbi, finds her life beginning to unravel because of the temptations of the modern world and the incessant demands of her husband's congregation, her faith, and her life.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member shifrack00
Not her best. This book is self-conscious, both about her previous books and also about taking this satire "all the way." Sarcastically funny, but not as enjoyable as other books of the same genre.
LibraryThing member jacketscoversread
Deliliah is a whiner. Plain and simple. To the point where I wanted to band her head against the wall. To the point where I wanted to throw this book out the window as we drove though Jersey. The only interesting part about this book was the traditions and lifestyles of Orthodox Jews and the part
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about Rabbi Hershel Metzenbaum and his family, which only last 5 pages. But it wasn’t enough to redeem it. Show Less
LibraryThing member CatieN
Delilah Levi is a young Jewish woman from a middle-class family who aspires to much greater things and let no one get in her way. I realize this is a satire, but there is absolutely nothing sympathetic about Delilah. She is a one-note song: selfish, conniving, narcissistic, etc. I believe the main
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character has to be flawed to have a good story, but there also has to be some redeeming character trait. There were absolutely none in Delilah. On a positive note, the ending was very good but not quite enough to make up for the rest of the book. Disappointing read. Show Less
LibraryThing member coolmama
I found it hard to read a book where I (and clearly the author) dislikes the main character. I felt no empathy for Deliliah, and not only that, she annoyed me greatly. She was a winey, obnoxious, stuck up, boring woman who didn't love or even like her husband Chaim, and hated being a rabbi's wife.
LibraryThing member Acia
I´m not Jewish nor religious and I had never read anything by Naomi Ragen but I´m curious to understand how religion can affect someone´s entire life. Found this book in a second-hand bookshop in Sao Paulo, Brazil – very far from NY or Israel and started reading it out of curiosity. In the
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end, I managed to learn a thing or two about Orthodox Judaism rituals and in particular what’s expected of a rabbi´s wife. It´s a fast read and when I finished the overall feeling was that the narrative never left the surface, the constant satire and stereotyping became annoying and the main character – Delilah (the rabbi´s wife) never came alive. She is just highly unlikeable throughout. And whilst the author rightly exposes the double standards and hypocrisy of many religious people, to make Chaim (the rabbi) saintly, not very bright, the one we should feel sorry for was not convincing. But the ending was certainly the most disappointing. I wanted to know what happened to Delilah and Chaim. Show Less
ISBN
9780312352387