Rating: 
Summary: almost 4 stars--it has its moments
Review: "The Family Orchard" is a book I was saving for a rainy day. It had gotten wonderful reviews and I had been looking forward to it. Unfortunately it didn't live up to its billing.
The story is a rambling account of a Palestinian (later Israeli) Jewish family. At the roots of the family tree are two 19th century European Jewish immigrants to Jerusalem. They marry, have kids, their kids marry and have kids, etc. down to the present. The book is episodic, with the most detailed narrative devoted to the most recent branches of the family, who, aptly enough, make their living as fruit growers and orchard owners. The author uses the literary conceit of matching her father's scanty account of the family history with her own imaginings of it. At times this is effective, but at other times it has an artificial ring to it. The main metaphor of the book, that of grafting new stock onto old, is given a rather heavy handed factual treatment at the end of the book--all you ever wanted to know about tree grafting but never cared to ask.
Overall, I found the book frustrating. There were parts that were absolutely charming and parts that were quite powerful. The story of Gabi, the "different" child, was as heartrending a description of a family quietly devastated as any I've read. The descriptions of the twins and their grandfather were wonderful, as was the story of the founding pair. But the major problem was that the book was just too episodic. Several of the earlier chapters had been published separately as short stories, and it showed.
I wouldn't quite call the book disjointed, because I think that Eve was trying to hint at the fragmentary nature of what we know about our family histories and the individuals from who we are descended. Most of us know only a few scattered facts about the lives of our forebears. There is much that is unknown to us and we have to fill the gaps with our imagination. I think that's what Eve is doing in this work that seems to be based on her own family history. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But it?s an interesting attempt nonetheless.
Rating: 
Summary: Clever in concept...
Review: ...tedious in execution. This book just rubbed me the wrong way. The telling of a family history via their family tree with contributions from a father and daughter telling the stories from different perspectives ought to be a real page turner. Instead I just kept turning to the end of the book to see how many pages I had left. I just could not "get into" this book, no matter how hard I tried. The book is close to 300 pages long, and I swear it wasn't until around page 286 that I felt any emotion other than dislike. The concept was very interesting and since it is the story of her ancestors, I hate to be so critical, but to me this was just outright boring. This book seemed to go on & on and on rambling in no direction. The loose ends were neatly tied up at the end, but by that time I was so sick to death of reading about citrus trees and how to graft them that I just wanted to scream. It was a very happy time when I finished and closed this book for good.
Rating: 
Summary: Very dissapointed
Review: After reading all of the reviews I could not wait to read this book. The subject and topic interested me. Howerver, I found it very disjointed. I found the authors use of the english language so amature, I almost felt that I was reading a text of writing from someone speaking and thinking with a heavy accent and a lack of knowledge of English grammar. Not to be confused, if in fact that is from whom the character tells the story I would have accepted that, however that is not implied here. It was so disjointed, and confusing, I had to constantly look up a reference source to understand the history of the time. The idea and method of telling the story is indeed clever. However I never could get interested or absorbed in the people being told about. This could have been a great book, and I guess a good first attempt, however I feel with some help and re writes it may have been better. I really do not recommend it. I read at least two books of fiction a week and have read so many that are worth my time and enjoyment that I would recommend above this one. Sorry! I know it is not easy to write and I admire the effort, but I did not like it.
Rating: 
Summary: Multi-generational tale of fact and legend, intertwined.
Review: As her father writes a factual history of the family tree, Nomi writes the legends surrounding the history. It is interesting to see the short, unimaginative paragraphs written by her father contrasting to the poetic, quirky, stories that she tells about the generations of her family. Starting with Esther and Yochanon, who are married only four months when she begins an affair with the baker which only serves to enhance the marriage...leading to their son Eliezer, who after his mother dies while birthing him, is gifted with the stepsister he will fall in love with and marry...leading to light-fingered Avra, who steals not for material acquisition (she often replaces the things she steals with other things that she has stolen) but because it is an intrinsic part of her being...These wonderfully told stories and offbeat personalities illuminate the Schine/Sepher family's lives with a bright light of warmth, humor, passion, and understanding. My only complaint is that by the time you finally get to know and like a character in the novel, their chapter has ended and you're introduced to a whole new set of people. I understand that it's necessary to condense in a multi-generation book that spans a century and a half, but there are some people in the book that I would have liked to have gotten to know better!
Rating: 
Summary: THE PICK OF THE CROP!
Review: Every once in a while a writer captivates even the most disparate critics. Such an author is Nomi Eve, whose debut novel has garnered accolades for its imagination, narrative strength, and lyrical prose. For those unfamiliar with "The Family Orchard," it is a multigenerational novel encompassing five generations who live through Palestine's turbulent history and the birth of Israel. Readers are privy to love affairs and long hidden family secrets by characters who are fully drawn and fascinating - Ms. Eve is a master storyteller as she relates her tale through the mouths of a father and a fictional Nomi. To hear the accomplished Fritz Weaver and the inspired Polly Draper bring these individuals to life is tantamount to Broadway's finest. Tony Award-winner Weaver is by turns taciturn, sometimes didactic, while the ebullient Polly Draper never misses a beat in embroidering memory. This pairing is inspired, as are their readings.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing! A Masterpiece!
Review: How did a thirty two year old manage to mature enough to write a masterpiece? This book is a wonder to read, never boring and just breathtakingly good.
Rating:
Summary: A superlative book
Review: I finished The Family Orchard recently. It took only a few daysto read it this first time because the world Eve has created is filledwith so much love and interest that I couldn't put it down. I snuckit in on my 'lunch' break, grabbed a few pages on my walk home, andpeeked at it in the elevator to and from my office. Reading it waslike wrapping myself in a cashmere throw with a whimsical design --both luxurious and casual, warm and inviting. There is so much that Ilearned in it. I knew very little about Israeli history, for one.The reading of this book has inspired me to learn about the manypeople who held this land for so long and the struggle to definefreedom that seems never ending there. I felt that I met so manynew friends -- people I wanted to spend my evenings with and now theyhave all returned to their own lands, the visit is over. I also felta bit of shame, of embarrassment because of the intimacy of thestories... I mean the intimate knowledge that I gained as a readerinto who these people were (or who Eve imagined they were). Theirlives were dreamlike, magical just like our own dream lives. Loveholds the book together -- a love for family, ... a couple's love andthe author's love of words. The strength and abundance of love likethis is rare and usually shared with only a few people. To share itso powerfully and with such imagination made me blush with pleasureand shyness. It was a superlative book, the kind you find sometimesburied in your 'must read' stack; the kind that you share with friendsbut share with yourself over and over again through rereads; the kindthat changes perception and opens a window into the world behind thetangible. Pick it up and read it.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I had very high expectations for this book. The jacket reviews were superlative. What's more, like the characters in the book, my own grandmother was the seventh generation of her family to be born in Palestine. My father grew up in Petach Tikvah, where much of the book is set. I found the book to be boring and odd. The theme that suposedly bound the story together was the grafting of trees. Unfortunately, this thread was not as profound or as interesting as the author apparantly wanted it to be. With a tone of magical wonder, the author told the story largely through the sexual history and other pecadillos of the members of the story's family. It wasn't enough to create a captivating novel. This book succeeded in making magical realism annoying by telling the reader how magical and wonderful things were instead of telling the story in such a way as to make the reader feel the magic and wonder themselves. The story was boring. If I hadn't brought it to savor on a long train ride, I don't think I would have finished it. Like Myla Goldberg's Bee Season, and much worse, Pete Hamill's Snow in August, this book also delves into the Kabbalistic concept of the Golem, or conjured monster. Enough already! It's been done. I do think that there is a good novel waiting to be written about the Jews who lived in Palestine before World War I, because they surely were unusual and certainly passionate about being there. Sadly, and to my great disappointment, this was not that book.
Rating:
Summary: A creative first effort
Review: I have to admit that after reading some of the reviews of "The Family Orchard" my expectations were a little high, so I'll couch my disappontment in praise. This story of a family's history interwoven with the development of Israel was fascinating at first. Eve does a fine job at the beginning of giving you a small glimpse into some aspect of the lives of different members of her family tree. I thought it was very creative to juxtapose the father's knowledge/memory of one of the narrator's ancestors, and then to show a "true" glimpse into that person's heart and mind. This conceit works well until we approach modern times. At that point, Eve's characterizations become too shallow and sketchy to keep the reader's interest. I read 3-4 books of fiction a week, and I have to admit that I didn't even finish this one! Also there are times when this novel really feels written, the text gets a little labored and the author's writing obscures the story. Still, an ambitious and admirable debut
Rating:
Summary: This Story is Fascinating
Review: I just finished reading The Family Orchard by Nomi Eve. It held my interest from beginning to end. Ms. Eve makes everything come to life with a remarkable command of the language. She imparts feelings in such a way that you can really immerse yourself in the joys and sorrows of her characters. She made me laugh and she made me cry. The historical background was also beautifully done and the illustrations appropriate and fascinating. We need to know more about these people and I hope she is already working on a sequel.
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