Unlike A
Conspiracy of Paper, where the Jewishness of the protagonist,
while important to the book, wasn’t central to his character,
everyone who comes to Kaaterskill Falls for the summer
is Jewish, and that’s the most important thing in their lives. Not just
during the summer, either, but 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (but most
especially on Shabbat).

Most of the summer people are Orthodox Jews; in particular, the families
who are at the core of the novel are Kirshners, followers of Rav
Kirshner, who is seventy-eight and frail as the novel opens. We follow
several of the families through two summers and into a third; during
that time, we see birth and death affect this community. There are
conflicts, of course, but no high drama (at least not to anyone but the
participants).

I enjoyed the book — I’m not Orthodox (far from it), but I was able to
identify with some of the questioning and decisions that the characters
had to make in reconciling their life with late 20th-century America.
The author doesn’t explain any of the Hebrew or Yiddish terms she uses,
so I would expect someone who’s unfamiliar with Jewish practice to have
a hard time following what’s going on in some places.

Now to start Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. See you when I
finish! [One chapter down, many to go…if she keeps up the same level of action in the rest of the book as in the first chapter, I’m going to be exhausted before I’m done.]

We went to Shabbat services this morning at Shir Hadash, as usual. The Rabbi said she was surprised to see us — she thought we’d be reading the new Harry Potter instead. I told her we didn’t even have a copy yet, and were still trying to decide between the US and UK editions — and I have to admit I was a little surprised by her comment.

But when services ended, I found out the rest of the story — her son had had his copy since 8am and had only put it down for services. As soon as services ended (while the rest of us were having some challah and schmoozing), he dashed back into the library to continue reading his copy — when we left, he was up to page 125 or so.

So we decided that the US edition would be just fine and stopped by the local Crown Books right after lunch. The cashier said that two of their stores had already run out of their allotment! This store, in Los Gatos, had ordered 1000 copies and still had quite a few, but expects to sell them all this week.

I don’t know when I’m going to start Harry Potter — I have to finish Kaaterskill Falls first so that Diane can read it before the book group discussion next Sunday. And we also have to finish editing the August issue of the Shir Hadash Notes, too. But at least I don’t have to worry about being unable to get a copy when I’m ready — well, not unless Diane or Jeffrey start our copy first (perhaps I should order a UK edition anyway, just to be on the safe side).

Not Harry Potter

I like the new multi-day discussion page feature in Manila. Thanks!

And it’s interesting to discover that I can get the Most-Read-Messages report for any ETP site, not just my own, just by adding /stats/mostreadmessages to the site’s name.