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Summary: One of the most fascinating religious journeys done justice!
Review: When you convert to Judaism, there is no INSTANT Torah. Moses doesn't come down and tell you not to eat pork. You are even supposed to respect your parents who think that you are either nuts (at best) or a traitor bound for hell (at worst). There's also a lot to learn that born Jews don't need to know, and you become Jewish without really having one answer to the ever pervasive WHY? Life has just lead you to a religion that doesn't encourage converts.. Thank you Stephen Dubner for chronicling one of the strangest spiritual journeys of all with a concise style and a great eye for details.
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Summary: unique and educational
Review: This book was one of the most interesting and well written books I have read in a long time. It is always great to read a book that is both enjoyable and educational. I felt this way about Angela's Ashes. I am an avid reader and I believe that everyone should read this book. It not only speaks about a man's conversion but also about his love for his family and his desire to understand those who came before him and feel a bond. It also delves into the interpersonal relationships between parent and child.
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Summary: fascinating and compelling; well written.
Review: In this journey of the heart, Stephen Dubner captured my attention with the first paragraph and did not let it go until the end. While the story (or stories) are as complicated as the individuals, he managed to convey their essence in very human terms. Truth can indeed be more than fiction. He is a gifted and compassionate writer.
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Summary: Great book--his background was much like mine.
Review: As a Jewish convert to Catholicism, I found this book interesting. My mother was a Catholic who converted to Orthodox Judaism, and my father was born a Jew. I chose to become Catholic as a young adult. Because of this, having two heritages, I could relate in a similar way to Dubner's experience. The book was very moving, and I ended it feeling as if I wanted to know the Dubners even more. I was sad when the book ended! I was also left feeling a peaceful joy at the true spiritual conversion on the part of Stephen's parents. Their conversion to the Faith is one of the truest I've heard of in a long time. I feel honored to have "met" them! I fell in love with them thru Stephen Dubner's telling of their lives. Very holy people!
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Summary: A Unique Masterpiece of Spiritual Literature
Review: Stephen J. Dubner touches not only the heart, but also the soul, in his 320 page masterpiece, "Turbulent Souls." Contrary to popular belief, this book is not just for Jews. In fact, I strongly recommend the book for educational institutions of all faiths, not only because of its wholehearted spiritual effects, but also for its rational and reasonable perspective of a difficult situation. Dubner masterfully portroys how one can overcome difficulties in life situations, and, in this respect, has soulfully produced a piece which can be enjoyed by students, parents, grandparents, and people of all faiths, cultures, and ethnicities. Being the son of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, I have been forced to face similar difficulties which the author discusses in his literature. I urge everyone to purchase this book, not because I tell you to; for if you do that, you will not enjoy it. But, purchase it because of the author's dedication, because of your own urge to gain knowledge, and because of the inspiring spiritual capacity offered by Stephen J. Dubner.
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Summary: Praise for Stephen Dubner and TURBULENT SOULS
Review: "A fantastic read by a suberb writer." -- James McBride, author of "The Color of Water." "In addition to being deeply moved by Turbulent Souls, I am full of admiration for Stephen J. Dubner's honesty, the complexity of his intelligence, his commitment to understanding his parents' history, and his refusal to oversimplify." -- Mary Gordon, author of "The Shadow Man." "I have never read a conversion story that was also a love story, but Stephen J. Dubner has written one. I couldn't put it down." -- Jack Miles, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "God: A Biography." "Honest and refreshing, entertaining and introspective, this is an adventure story of the heart with an opening to new and more honest dialogue between two great faith traditions." -- Rodger Kamenetz, author of "The Jew in the Lotus."
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Summary: Best book I've read in years
Review: Off the bat, I'm happy to say that Turbulent Souls by Stephen Dubner is the best book I've read in several years. In fact I can't remember a book I've liked better over the last several years for all its combined readability, complexities, and just good plain story. I read a lot-let's face it what else is there to do in Miami?--and Dubner really has the goods here as an author, writer and thinker to make Turbulent Souls a big hit, which I think it is already. I had a bunch of friends read the book after me; most already knew giblets of the writer's story from the cover story Dubner wrote for the New York Times Magazine on conversion. (Dubner became a Jew, or shall I say became the Jew he never had an inkling growing up he actually was.) The report back I got from everyone was that they loved the book too. I knew this not just because they said so, but because they didn't want to give it back. What I learned from them was that whether you're a Talmudic scholar or box of rocks or anything in between, Turbulent Souls is just as rewarding. You don't even have to be Jewish to like this book, because the story is a memoir of some unique and pretty remarkable events and life changes that are what we all think about no matter what our religion, history, heritage, or family. You might be saying, " oh no, not someone else's life story." I know what you mean-every book these days seems to be about some writer blaming their mean parents for the mess their lives have turned into. I asked why, and the kids who work at the bookstore down the street told me yesterday that we're in the "age of memoir." That also puts us in the age of bad memoir, they told me, because by the time publishers figured out it was "the age of memoir," all the good ones had already been written. All but Dubner's Turbulent Souls, that is. His turned his life swell, and he ain't self-pitying over anything. I don't want to tell too much of the plot because I hate when people ruin the good parts. In brief-Dubner, a New York Times journalist, uses his reporter skills to first fully trace back the life story and secrets of his parents Veronica and Paul, who while Stephen was growing up were upstanding and charismatic leaders of the Catholic community where they all lived in upstate New York. But seems there were previous lifetimes for these two. Once, Dubner's parents-- the devout rural Catholics--had been Brooklyn-born Jews named Solly Dubner and Florence Greenglass. They'd converted, for fascinating reasons that Dubner tells better than I can, but let's just say World War II had a little to do with it. None of this did Dubner have any idea of until he was an adult. I don't know-some surprises are not worth knowing, but I'm glad Dubner chased all secrets down. Seeing the skeletons in his family's closet didn't torment him, but set him free. And with that, they weren't even skeletons anymore. And what secrets! Sometimes Stephen writes in the third person in Turbulent Souls like an investigative reporter; when he focuses on himself he uses "me" and "I," and the combination works. He's not pretentious, and doesn't play literary games. Among other tidbits we learn in Turbulent Souls is that Dubner's mother was a first cousin of Ethel Rosenberg, the convicted atom bomb spy who went to the electric chair with her husband Julius for supposedly giving away the H-bomb And you think your family has problems? Ethel and Julius' chief accuser was David Greenglass, Ethel's brother-in-law and Mrs. Dubner's first cousin. (That goniff Roy Cohn prosecuted, and as he himself said, "it takes a Jew to get a Jew.") Dubner's mother, following the dogma of the Catholic Church, was a staunch anti-communist, something Ethel Rosenberg was, well, not. So the family's blood kinship to Ethel too became a Dubner secret-who wants to broadcast that two of your mishpocha are apparent traitors? Especially when you're Catholic and aren't supposed to even know the word "mishpocha?" Dubner learned everything, and what a story it is. Dubner's mother was furious when she read the book; it provides one of the many humorous-cuz-it's-happening-to-someone-else-and-not-you scenes. So who brings the two together? None other than Archbishop Cardinal O'Connor, who finally proves here to me that he is more than a canny politician, but a man who remembers he is a man of God who cares-a Catholic rav. Dubner's spiritual odyssey doesn't end here though. He does a highly effective kind of Evelyn Wood speed-learning of Judaism to the point he now knows more than almost all the people I know who've called themselves Jews all their lives. Taking lessons from various masters, Dubner even edits the teachings of the late Chassidic Rabbi Schneerson. Actually, Dubner "ghost-edits" Schneerson's teachings-like much of his life, Dubner had been forced to live in the dark. But no more. With Turbulent Souls, Dubner has launched himself into what I imagine will be a great and long career as an author. I want to read his next one whatever it's about. He hit a homer with this one. So few write about Judaism well: it's either watered-down New Age feel good nonsense, or is such technical, un-understanable babble you haven't got a chance unless you've already spent a dozen years in yeshiva. Ach! Who's got the time? Not me. If I weren't so moved by this book I'd be playing golf right now, not typing. But Dubner has found the perfect place, and voice, and story to make this a smart, universal story be you Jewish or Christian or anything at all. (I got my copy as a gift, but buy one, you'll thank me. And don't lend it because you'll never get it back.)
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Summary: I was enthralled by this book
Review: I began reading Turbulent Souls and was unable to stop until I had finished! A compelling family portrait combined with a search for religious/cultural identity, perfectly woven with humor, courage, grace, honesty, and love. A keeper.
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Summary: A powerful portrayal of the conversion experience
Review: As an adult exploring conversion from Catholicism to Judaism, I found Mr. Dubner's book very compelling.The angst and conflict experienced by those of us searching for a spiritual Truth is not accomplished in a vacuum. Our families are a very real component. Reading about the conversion experiences of both Stephen and his parents made me feel less of a freak; although I'm not sure I'll ultimately have the courage to make the covenant my heart so desperately wishes to make.I particularly connected with the author's comments on original sin and free will; they are at the top of my 'why' list. So, thank you, Stephen Dubner, for allowing us to feel your pain, your frustration, your exhilaration as you made your spiritual journey.
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Summary: I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN...INSPIRATIONAL
Review: I was sad to finish the book and to leave the Dubner family. Few people have the ability or the inclination to persue ones heritage (both Catholic and Jewish in Stephen Dubners case), and to do it with such passion and dignity. Stephen Dubner had the choice of religions in a way that should be the choice for all people, to be truely accepted as a Jew from birth right and to be truely accepted as a Catholic from birth right. The choice he made is not the key to this book. It was his yearning to understand his parents and their yearnings. It was his parents conversion that allowed him the choice to be the man HE wanted to be. The man that emerged is an intelligent, passionate,caring, soul searching mensch ( in any religion). I appluade that man an thank him for letting us into his life!
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