The Ladies Auxiliary

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Summary: what an inventive read
Review: this is a most enjoyable book, the characters are well drawn and the author clearly knows these people and their community. what i enjoyed most was the obvious affection she has for them and their living traditions. i hope this gets published in israel. mazel tov.

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Summary: A light and entertaining read!
Review: "The Ladies..." was pretty good. It had its good points and its bad points. I was a bit shocked at how kosher Jewish people are, but after a while it sort of blended together. Parts of this book were somewhat boring, but all-in-all it was a good read.

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Summary: An impressive debut novel.
Review: In "The Ladies Auxiliary," Tova Mirvis delves into the world of the Orthodox Jews of Memphis, Tennessee. Mirvis exposes the close-knit nature of this community as well as the hypocrisy and the intolerance of some of its members. This novel could have been very heavy-handed, and at times the message that we must be open-minded and less judgmental is laid on a little too thickly. However, the author makes some very canny moves. Batsheva is an outsider who comes to Memphis as a convert to Judaism who was formerly married to a native of Memphis. Her husband had tragically died and she is now alone with her small child. Batsheva wants her child to grow up in a loving environment. She winds up shaking up the community with her "original" ideas and boundless enthusiasm to try new things. However, Mirvis does not portray Batsheva simply as a free spirit who is unjustly maligned by a parochial group of busybodies. Batsheva makes mistakes that are very serious and the members of the Ladies Auxiliary are not totally wrong about Batsheva's impulsiveness and her lack of judgment. Although Batsheva may have acted as a catalyst to bring out the problems in the community, she didn't cause them in the first place. Mirvis points out that we are all human; we are all flawed. Blaming one another for our problems instead of working together to solve them may not be the best way to go. The writing, although not always elegant, is honest, fresh and clear. We care about these characters and their problems. The author offers no pat solutions. Mirvis has done a fine job of shining a light on a special community, showing both its strengths and its weaknesses.

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Summary: A unique setting for a morality tale
Review: I couldn't put this book down! The setting of unlike anything I've ever read. The rich details were fascinating and compelling. The story reminded me of a morality play - the communal chorus getting to know and judge Batsheva.

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Summary: Enlightening!
Review: As a native Memphian, this book has enlightened me on the world of Orthodox Jews. I had no idea that Jews considered Memphis the JERUSELUEM OF THE SOUTH. This book made me cry and laugh. I do not know what it feels like to be jewish, but now I at least have a glimpse into their world. With this book, Tova Mirvis has given us all a gift. I will cherish this book and refer back to it. I have been educated. Thank you, tova mirvis.

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Summary: A Touching Tale for Readers of All Backgrounds
Review: With a stunning, lyrical clarity, Ms. Mirvis elegantly depicts the unspoken forces and complexities that govern life within the vastly stratified orthodox community. Those in the know will immediately relate to her dead-on portrayal of the archtypical (and not so typical) citizens of such a community, but Mirvis' greater accomplishment lies in the fact that the book has not been written for the "insider." Rather, the story is told in such accessible terms that its characters and setting are appealing to readers of any background. By succeeding in this manner, she has elevated her novel well beyond the "Jewish Writers" genre, to something far more universal.

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Summary: an amazing read - you won't put it down
Review: The many themes that the author touches on affects any reader -- from the most to the least religious. It is the kind of book that makes you so involved in character's lives that it is almost impossible to stop reading and you are sad when it is over.

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Summary: Nicely written, but lacks suspense
Review: I enjoyed the first 100 pages of this novel very much. The characters, even the dislikeable ones, are presented with much love and kindness. But ultimately my interest waned. The minute the rabbi's son came on the scene, it was apparent what was going to happen. The rest of the novel lacked suspense. I also was dying for the author to identify the "I" who spoke for the "we." Was she, too, a lost soul in the community? This was never clarified--and I thought the writer lost a great chance to make the plot more complex.

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Summary: Where Mikvahs, YaYa, Kaaterskill, & the Mississippi converge
Review: After I got used to the use of third person plural (we), I was a gonner for this story of southern Jewish Orthodox life which can be insular yet friendly, by Barnard grad, Tova Mirvis, 27, who was raised in a frum household in East Memphis. The nuances of community, like the woman who keeps unkosher shrimp in her home, or the ladies who share incorrect recipes add to the story. Batsheva...you go girl!

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Summary: Southern yentas dramatize a universal theme
Review: Orthodoxy of any kind is at the same time comforting and confining; it's a paradox this author kneads into a very engaging story. Some of the characters are a bit caricaturized (can there be a more cartoonish busybody than a Southern Yenta?) but they work well together to dramatize the dilemma faced by so many people: do you follow the rules or follow your heart?