Scan barcode
A review by lpm100
The Punk-Rock Queen of the Jews: A Memoir by Rossi
dark
emotional
fast-paced
2.5
Book Review
"Punk Rock Queen of the Jews"
3/5 stars
"Low value added bildungsroman; sociological cliché of a Jewish child with problems from neurotic family."
*******
This book was mentioned in another book that I read by an author Sarah Glass. ("Kissing Girls on Shabbat")
The book is about a 4-hour read. (321 very easy pages.)
It's moderately interesting as a characterization of New York and the crime rate in 1980s. Also, as an outside description of Lubavitch during the time that MM Schneerson was alive, in the events surrounding his death. (She makes the Mesichists appear larger than life.)
This author was not from a religious family, but there is still a lot of overlap between her and religious people who broke away and tried to find their own way.
1. In other books like this, none of the cases seemed that serious because these people's parents financed them the entire time. (Sarah Glass received $100,000 a year from her father.)
2. This was okay for a first read, but I would not recommend paying more than $5 for it for other people who purchase it. (I paid $14.64, and that was probably too much.) And it's not a book that I'm going to return to.
3. It has been said before that "if a man is meant to drown, he will drown in a spoonful of water." Not for no reason has that expression been around for such a long time: People like this author gravitate toward scummy, loser people (drug addicts, rapists, newly religious) and difficult situations It could have been completely avoided.
4. There were some continuity issues. We know that the father died, but she didn't say when. She implies that the sister Yaya died, but I don't think brought a proper resolution to her, either. The brother Mendel died as the book was going to press, but was he sick? Or did he just have a heart attack and that was it?
5. How long can one coming-out-story go on?
6. We knew that the family had mental problems. That's ABUNDANTLY CLEAR. But, the mother was supremely inconsistent: eating at Wendy's, and never going to services. And after all this, she disowned her child after she married an Irish Catholic?
NONE of it needed to be this way.
That said, I will just give some of the most interesting quotes from the book.
1. The only mom I ever knew was a 5-ft tall 300 lb stay-at-home mom.
2. We want Moshiach now. We don't want to wait!
3. There, behind boxes of soda, flower, and plastic cups, sitting on the floor on cushions around a large bong, with three pious looking old men.
4. Periodically, Lubavitch man would walk in and slide a 5 or $10 bill into the turnaround in the bulletproof glass. Hector would take the money and spend out a small manila envelope in return.
5. 8 years of Hebrew school and I get a slut! No decent man will ever want you! You're soiled goods!
6. "When I was in Yeshiva, the older boys were always trying to get into my ass." (This was a guy friend that she had, not the author herself.)
7. Lubavitchers are not allowed to trim their beards, they are allowed to burn them off..... Burnt Beard put his hand on the door "at least a blowjob or something? We spent a lot of money on you ladies!"
8. " Honey," he complained to me one day, "those old rabbis won't leave me alone! They want a piece of this!" He slapped his own ass.
9. Mom's hoarding had gotten so bad that the dining room now housed a mountain of flashlights with bank logos, mismatched plastic placemats, coffee mugs with real estate agency logos, hundreds of bags of stale pretzels, packs of granola bars so old they were covered in dust, old magazines, newspapers, and Sabbath candlesticks. A narrow pathway through it all provided access to the kitchen.
10. Soon, Dad moved to San Diego with his new girlfriend Natalie, and none of his children were allowed in their home.
Verdict: Recommended only at the price of $5
"Punk Rock Queen of the Jews"
3/5 stars
"Low value added bildungsroman; sociological cliché of a Jewish child with problems from neurotic family."
*******
This book was mentioned in another book that I read by an author Sarah Glass. ("Kissing Girls on Shabbat")
The book is about a 4-hour read. (321 very easy pages.)
It's moderately interesting as a characterization of New York and the crime rate in 1980s. Also, as an outside description of Lubavitch during the time that MM Schneerson was alive, in the events surrounding his death. (She makes the Mesichists appear larger than life.)
This author was not from a religious family, but there is still a lot of overlap between her and religious people who broke away and tried to find their own way.
1. In other books like this, none of the cases seemed that serious because these people's parents financed them the entire time. (Sarah Glass received $100,000 a year from her father.)
2. This was okay for a first read, but I would not recommend paying more than $5 for it for other people who purchase it. (I paid $14.64, and that was probably too much.) And it's not a book that I'm going to return to.
3. It has been said before that "if a man is meant to drown, he will drown in a spoonful of water." Not for no reason has that expression been around for such a long time: People like this author gravitate toward scummy, loser people (drug addicts, rapists, newly religious) and difficult situations It could have been completely avoided.
4. There were some continuity issues. We know that the father died, but she didn't say when. She implies that the sister Yaya died, but I don't think brought a proper resolution to her, either. The brother Mendel died as the book was going to press, but was he sick? Or did he just have a heart attack and that was it?
5. How long can one coming-out-story go on?
6. We knew that the family had mental problems. That's ABUNDANTLY CLEAR. But, the mother was supremely inconsistent: eating at Wendy's, and never going to services. And after all this, she disowned her child after she married an Irish Catholic?
NONE of it needed to be this way.
That said, I will just give some of the most interesting quotes from the book.
1. The only mom I ever knew was a 5-ft tall 300 lb stay-at-home mom.
2. We want Moshiach now. We don't want to wait!
3. There, behind boxes of soda, flower, and plastic cups, sitting on the floor on cushions around a large bong, with three pious looking old men.
4. Periodically, Lubavitch man would walk in and slide a 5 or $10 bill into the turnaround in the bulletproof glass. Hector would take the money and spend out a small manila envelope in return.
5. 8 years of Hebrew school and I get a slut! No decent man will ever want you! You're soiled goods!
6. "When I was in Yeshiva, the older boys were always trying to get into my ass." (This was a guy friend that she had, not the author herself.)
7. Lubavitchers are not allowed to trim their beards, they are allowed to burn them off..... Burnt Beard put his hand on the door "at least a blowjob or something? We spent a lot of money on you ladies!"
8. " Honey," he complained to me one day, "those old rabbis won't leave me alone! They want a piece of this!" He slapped his own ass.
9. Mom's hoarding had gotten so bad that the dining room now housed a mountain of flashlights with bank logos, mismatched plastic placemats, coffee mugs with real estate agency logos, hundreds of bags of stale pretzels, packs of granola bars so old they were covered in dust, old magazines, newspapers, and Sabbath candlesticks. A narrow pathway through it all provided access to the kitchen.
10. Soon, Dad moved to San Diego with his new girlfriend Natalie, and none of his children were allowed in their home.
Verdict: Recommended only at the price of $5