This was excellent as well, although the ending disappointed me, and again totally different.
Heavily framed by orthodox Judaism, about which I know little but it is pretty similar to Christianity, apart from the obsession with kosher – I don’t really know what that is – food.
Contemporary Hendon as an outpost of orthodox Judaism, and a girl’s attempt to rebel – it is a bit of a Portrait of a Jewess as a young lesbian - and a 19th century novel, about the stifling constraints of an imposed orthodoxy.
Chapter 7 which is about the sin of gossip - is straight out of George Eliot as the wives of Hendon gossip about the scandal.
Quite a difficult and maybe rather narrowly focussed book, but extremely good and I haven’t done it justice here.
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