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A review by lpm100
After the Rain by Norma Fox Mazer
2.0
A parent's Book Review
2/5 stars
After the Rain,
Norma Fox Mazer
"Not all that relatable for young sons"
This was a Newberry book and I had been going through several Newberry books so that I had things to give to my sons to read later on that I had already pre-read (to make sure that it was kosher / clean).
It turns out that winning a newbery award is an imperfect predictor of how good a book will be. (It's kind of the opposite of how Oprah's Book club endorsement is an imperfect predictor of a book that will be trash.)
I have to say that this book only took one day to read, and I'm even sorry that I wasted that much time.
∆∆∆The first problem is that there are a lot of things that are factually wrong/not consistent with medical treatment today.
1. When a patient is dying, it is emphatically not the case that the doctor tells everyone except him. (I think everybody has noticed that every time you go to the doctor you have to fill out a telephone book of HIPAA privacy paperwork.)
2. No, doctors are not people that you can just call up anytime you need to talk to them and they drop everything and come running.
3. End of life issues are treated by hospice, and if the exact same events of the book happened today-- then that is exactly where Grandpa would have been.
∆∆∆There were also some problems with the philosophical points of the book:
1. The family was a bunch of non-Jewish Jews.
To an insider, there are clues all over the place - - even though the author does not specifically come out and say it until probably about page 154.
-Nobody modifies their life in any way on a Saturday.
-People serve a dinner of chicken with sour cream and potatoes. (Oops)
-The grandfather is cremated at the end of his life.
If you want your children to stay observant and you want to give them positive images of an observant family, you will not find that in this book.
2. The book has a family that just has way too much melodrama going on. I get sick of books where characters have the same issues as 40-year-old triply divorced alcoholics - - even though they may only be 15. (This book was written 34 years ago, but it is the harbinger of what passes as young adult fiction today.)
Everybody who raises a number of children has some number of difficulties, and you don't need to read a book to hear about imaginary / someone else's difficulties.
3. I'm raising sons, and this book has an excessively chick-ish feel to it.
4. The book is too far back in time for any of the details to make the book relatable.
∆∆∆There were some plausibility problems.
1. A 15-year-old has nothing like a relationship with this surly grandfather, and then all of a sudden when he's going to die then they become best friends in the world.
2. This is not the normative Jewish way to deal with death. (In the Orthodox conceptual space, death is just a part of life and dealt with in a matter of fact way; When people die, the funeral and burial are completed within 24 hours and services usually take about 30 minutes.)
3. The protagonist does a lot of whining about not having a boyfriend. (It's almost like she doesn't realize that Jewish women are at the top of the dating market and don't have to wait for anybody.)
4. She has friends and hang out with her and an 83-year-old grandfather because of course any 15-year-old is going to put all of her friends aside in order to do just that so they figure that if they want her contact then maybe they better come for a visit.
The last problem is that the book kept switching back and forth between first and third person.
Aggravating.
I think that any of the Beverly cleary Leigh Botts bildungsroman are more relatable. Or, maybe anything by Gary Paulsen.
Verdict:
Not recommended.
Save your time.
This book is going to be donated to the library within the next several hours.
2/5 stars
After the Rain,
Norma Fox Mazer
"Not all that relatable for young sons"
This was a Newberry book and I had been going through several Newberry books so that I had things to give to my sons to read later on that I had already pre-read (to make sure that it was kosher / clean).
It turns out that winning a newbery award is an imperfect predictor of how good a book will be. (It's kind of the opposite of how Oprah's Book club endorsement is an imperfect predictor of a book that will be trash.)
I have to say that this book only took one day to read, and I'm even sorry that I wasted that much time.
∆∆∆The first problem is that there are a lot of things that are factually wrong/not consistent with medical treatment today.
1. When a patient is dying, it is emphatically not the case that the doctor tells everyone except him. (I think everybody has noticed that every time you go to the doctor you have to fill out a telephone book of HIPAA privacy paperwork.)
2. No, doctors are not people that you can just call up anytime you need to talk to them and they drop everything and come running.
3. End of life issues are treated by hospice, and if the exact same events of the book happened today-- then that is exactly where Grandpa would have been.
∆∆∆There were also some problems with the philosophical points of the book:
1. The family was a bunch of non-Jewish Jews.
To an insider, there are clues all over the place - - even though the author does not specifically come out and say it until probably about page 154.
-Nobody modifies their life in any way on a Saturday.
-People serve a dinner of chicken with sour cream and potatoes. (Oops)
-The grandfather is cremated at the end of his life.
If you want your children to stay observant and you want to give them positive images of an observant family, you will not find that in this book.
2. The book has a family that just has way too much melodrama going on. I get sick of books where characters have the same issues as 40-year-old triply divorced alcoholics - - even though they may only be 15. (This book was written 34 years ago, but it is the harbinger of what passes as young adult fiction today.)
Everybody who raises a number of children has some number of difficulties, and you don't need to read a book to hear about imaginary / someone else's difficulties.
3. I'm raising sons, and this book has an excessively chick-ish feel to it.
4. The book is too far back in time for any of the details to make the book relatable.
∆∆∆There were some plausibility problems.
1. A 15-year-old has nothing like a relationship with this surly grandfather, and then all of a sudden when he's going to die then they become best friends in the world.
2. This is not the normative Jewish way to deal with death. (In the Orthodox conceptual space, death is just a part of life and dealt with in a matter of fact way; When people die, the funeral and burial are completed within 24 hours and services usually take about 30 minutes.)
3. The protagonist does a lot of whining about not having a boyfriend. (It's almost like she doesn't realize that Jewish women are at the top of the dating market and don't have to wait for anybody.)
4. She has friends and hang out with her and an 83-year-old grandfather because of course any 15-year-old is going to put all of her friends aside in order to do just that so they figure that if they want her contact then maybe they better come for a visit.
The last problem is that the book kept switching back and forth between first and third person.
Aggravating.
I think that any of the Beverly cleary Leigh Botts bildungsroman are more relatable. Or, maybe anything by Gary Paulsen.
Verdict:
Not recommended.
Save your time.
This book is going to be donated to the library within the next several hours.