So, anyway, Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders. I love the look inside the Jewish culture; I have taken a class in Hebrew so I have the tiniest of ideas what the culture is like; I was the only non-Jew, but I believe they were not that religious - heck, at the time I was growing a full beard and earlocks for no good reason so I looked more jewish. =) Anyway... the sheer pressure that these kids were under is just amazing. All the time spent studying, the heavy expectations, the strict ritualts, all these things together are just so different than my own upbringing, my own experiences and observations.
I appreciated how the author helped me slip into Reuven's shoes, but at the time I felt it quite distracting to be reading at such an intellectually advanced level for a 15-year old. Is the author trying to project that these kids actually perceive and think along such mature and wisened lines, or is that merely a by-product of the author's style? I enjoyed the flow of the story, the onrush of the baseball game and the near cataclysmic accident, the waxing and waning of excitement, of the relationship between the two boys. The father's almost come across as devious chess-masters using their kids to manuever around a playing board.
So while I had an extremely hard time believing the story and stepping into that universe, I did find myself rooting for Reuven and perhaps a stirring of pity mixed with awe. Perhaps some children do go through such stringent practices.
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