Novelist Mirvis (The Ladies Auxiliary) has fallen out of love with both her husband and Orthodox Judaism-and is struggling not only to articulate what that means to her but also how to define such disconnection. -Mirvis is not in limbo throughout this book. As she begins her memoir, she documents what it feels like to leave her husband and religion; her only hint at what caused the break is that she can no longer "shape myself into a form that felt too tight." The author has shared custody of three -school-age -children and a budding romance, both of which she negotiates with gentle aplomb. Her interior narrative voice draws readers in, asking if she can be loved for who she is, not who she was, especially in her withdrawal from her natal religion. VERDICT A soothing picture of personal and religious divorce.-SC © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The Orthodox traditions of Judaism, explains Mirvis, enact and memorialize divorce through the preparation and ceremonial presentation of a get, an Aramaic word that can be translated as a book of separation. In her memoir titled for this process, Mirvis chronicles both her separation from her husband of 17 years and the long journey of separation from the Orthodox family, community, and worldview in which she was raised. Looking both backward and forward, Mirvis recounts with candor and close observation the social, psychological, and spiritual travail precipitated by leaving her narrow but well-known world and entering a more secular, unfamiliar territory. Her tale revisits the seeds of doubt that first troubled her as a young, Orthodox woman as well as the upheaval she feared and resisted while those doubts matured into an irresistible urge to depart from all that was intimately familiar to her. Sharing the personal details and drama of her journey, Mirvis recounts the arduous path so many must take to emerge into their own, true identities.--Dworman, Ross Copyright 2017 Booklist

Novelist Mirvis (Visible City) intimately chronicles her divorce and her separation from modern Orthodox Judaism in this bold memoir. After a lifetime devoted to religion and her family, she decided to navigate the secular world for the first time. She became a single parent, sharing custody of her three children with her ex-husband Aaron, whom she met as an undergrad at Columbia University. Throughout, she reflects on both the psychological tension and joy of choosing a new lifestyle, one in which she drives on Shabbat and celebrates new holidays such as Halloween. Her children, too, go through their own transformative relationship to religion: her oldest son, Noam, remained Orthodox, while the middle child, Josh, like her, chose to explore a freedom outside of Orthodox Judaism. He eats nonkosher pizza for the first time and has late-night discussions about whether he believes in God. Mirvis's account focuses less on the oppressiveness she felt within the religion and more on the emotional impact of separating and starting over. Hers is a story of grief and rebirth. She is compassionate and judicious in her portrayal of Orthodox Judaism, even as she describes its repressive attitudes toward women; she also discusses the diverse Jewish lifestyles, from Hasidic to secular. Her personal journey makes for an introspective and fascinating story. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.