With more than half a million copies of her novels sold, Naomi Ragen has connected with the hearts of readers as well as reviewers who have met her work with unanimous praise. In The Saturday Wife, Ragen utilizes her fluid writing style -- rich with charm and detail -- to break new ground as she harnesses satire to expose a world filled with contradiction. Beautiful, blonde, materialistic Delilah Levy steps into a life she could have never imagined when in a moment of panic she decides to marry a sincere Rabbinical student. But the reality of becoming a paragon of virtue for a demanding and hypocritical congregation leads sexy Delilah into a vortex of shocking choices which spiral out of control into a catastrophe which is as sadly believable as it is wildly amusing. Told with immense warmth, fascinating insight, and wicked humor, The Saturday Wife depicts the pitched and often losing battle of all of us as we struggle to hold on to our faith and our values amid the often delicious temptations of the modern world.
The Saturday Wife, published in
Hebrew by
Zmora Beitan (September 2007).
'Saturday Wife' is well-written satireDelilah Levi grew up on Long Island. She was blonde and as pretty as any of the girls in her Hebrew Academy. But her parents weren't as wealthy as the other girls' parents. In gym class, Delilah was never chosen first for a punchball team. No wonder, then, that she grew up to be so shallow.
Naomi Ragen's sixth novel, "The Saturday Wife," is a well-executed satire. Ragen slathers on the ironies. Early in the book, Delilah — who does not know the meaning of compassion, who feels happy only when wallowing in materialism — ends up married to an Orthodox rabbi.
He's a wimp. But he's a rabbi. The action rises and falls from there, because, on some level, Delilah's husband actually does believe God is enough.
He believes the Torah is enough. He believes that elaborate bar mitzvahs and designer purses are beside the point and may actually get in the way of human happiness.
Ragen, who was raised in the United States and has lived in Israel for 30 years, explained in her acknowledgements about how she got the idea for "The Saturday Wife." She wrote, "I would like to thank, equally and profoundly, the blonde in the miniskirt and tank top who got up onstage to dance with the toddlers during a Kosher Club week in the Dominican Republic, and Gustave Flaubert for writing 'Madame Bovary,' which I took along with me on vacation. The confluence of those two is truly responsible for this book."
In addition to smiles and chuckles, Ragen gives readers insight into the lives of Orthodox Jews in New York. Details abound.
About a wedding, she writes, "The single girls made their way around the hall, searching for someone who would give them a ride home. That is always the most urgent need when attending a Jewish wedding in Manhattan. You simply do not want to ride out to Brooklyn or Queens on the New York subway system at 10 p.m. ... The second reason, though, was always more important. You wanted to walk out with your pick from the most eligible single men, ensuring a good hour alone with him. It was considered a party favor, much more urgent and useful than catching the bride's bouquet." – Susan Whitney, Deseret Morning NewsNaomi Ragen is one of my very favorite authors, and I always look forward to reading anything of hers.
Hilary Daninhirsch, BookloonsIn fact, she wrote two of my all-time favorite novels: The Sacrifice of Tamar and Sotah. This new book is a biting and exaggerated satire of an otherwise insulated population: Modern Orthodox Jews.
The wife in the title of this novel refers to a rebbetzin, a rabbi's wife. In this case, the wife is Delilah, a manipulative and selfish social-climber, whose Orthodox Jewish values conflict with her desire for wealth. Being a rabbi's wife was not the life Delilah envisioned for herself, but at the time, Chaim seemed like a way up the ladder and out of her parents' lives. Never satisfied and living by the grass is always greener philosophy, Delilah wants what everyone else has. She badgers her husband to leave his comfortable rabbinical position in New York and move to a congregation in an affluent suburb of Connecticut, with disastrous consequences.
There is very little that is either likeable or redeemable about Delilah, and that is the point. Nothing will ever make her happy; even when she thinks she has what she wants, she will just keep wanting more things, and more space to put them in. Yet at heart, she is a religious Jew who still says the blessings over her kosher food. Delilah has to do her best to impress the bigwigs at the synagogue. When that proves to be too much for her, she befriends an unbelievably wealthy woman in the community, who arranges the most decadent and ostentatious bar mitzvah for her stepson that anyone has ever seen.
All of the main players are caricatures, their behavior extreme. Only Chaim, the rabbi, has any redeemable qualities. This book should not be taken seriously as an accurate picture of Modern Orthodox Jews - it is merely a social satire and a commentary about the dichotomy between solid Jewish values and material excess. Reading it is like gleefully watching a horror movie - you can't wait to see what comes next, knowing a disaster is about to befall someone. In that vein, the ending does not disappoint. The Saturday Wife reminded me of The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis in the sense that the narrator seemed to be the community at large. –"Sharper than a Torah pointer, a high-comedy social satire with a bleeding heart." – Anne Rophie
Like Emma Bovary, Delilah Goldgrab longs for a better life.
A Queens yeshiva girl, Delilah is prayerfully remorseful
after fornicating with young, opportunistic Yitzie Polinsky,
and quickly marries mediocre rabbinical student Chaim Levi,
who is unable to provide her with a house, much less the
glossy upper-middle-class life she longs for. When Chaim
accepts a position as the rabbi of an affluent Connecticut
congregation, Delilah has the opportunity to indulge her
ideas about happiness as the congregation's rebbitzin, with
deliciously disastrous consequences. It's hard to like
selfish, clueless Delilah or anyone else here: the pleasure
of this novel is in its mercilessness, with Ragen (The
Covenant) raising the stakes until the very end.
– India Edghill, author of Wisdom’s Daughter
My copy of The Saturday Wife arrived today
(I pre-ordered on Amazon!) and though I promised
myself I'd save it for Shabbos, I couldn't resist
cracking it open for a taste.
It's 10 PM and I just finished it. A delightful read
that I couldn't put down. Thank you for the
entertainment and gentle musser. And even more fun
for me because you set it in Connecticut, of all
places.
Your books are always worth waiting for. This one is
no exception. Thank you!
– Marsha, Stamford, CT
Thank you for another wonderful book. I couldn't
put it down. It was wonderfully put together to show
the extremes of some people and some congregations.
I suppose the unfortunate part is there really are
people like this.
Once again thanks for a wonder book. I look forward
to the next.
Thank you for your list server and all that you do!
– Ilene Gerber