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Title: Rashi's Daughters, Book II: Miriam: A Novel of Love and the Talmud in Medieval France
ISBN: 0452288630
Author:
Maggie Anton
Publicate Date: 2007-07-31
Publish: 2007-07-31
List Price: $15.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $3.86
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $2.58
Amazon Merchant Price: $9.00
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Waiting for the 3rd daughter's book
Couldn't put the first two books down. Shared them with my 93 year old Aunt Bess and now she keeps pestering me for the 3rd daughter's book!
Thank you Maggie.
Mj
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2: Rashi's Daughters, Book II: Miriam
This book not only came in excellent condition, but also received it before I ever got Rashi's Daughters, Book I. I would definately use this seller again.
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3: A good read
This book is very good if you enjoy some in depth reading. You must follow along to keep the characters straight. Also I only found the glossary when I was finishing the book, so I spent some time looking up Jewish words. It is really interesting to read about the different time periods and how people lived.
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4: Dull, derivative historical romance, tarted up with Judaica
I picked this up at random in the library, not realizing it was the second book in a trilogy (and if the author's comments are accurate, will be also reproduced as bowdlerized children's books). From comments here, I think it is possible that the first book is better, but I can only comment on what I have actually read.
The premise is fascinating: the story of a learned Talmudic scholar, Rashi, in the 11th century, who has 3 daughters and no sons, so he daringly educates his girls far beyond the norms of the day. I imagine in real life, these were three extremely fascinating and unusual women. So it's astonishing what a dull, lifeless story author Maggie Anton gives us -- a tedious recitation of "life in the middle ages" strung along with endless sex scenes and talk about hymens, deflowerings, menstrual cycles, pregnancies and births. I suppose in a real sense, the life of a medieval woman was highly circumscribed and restricted, and limited to just pleasing her husband and producing dozens of children until she died (usually in childbirth).
But this was supposed to be about three extremely unusual, educated Jewish women -- at a time when education itself was rare (even amongst men) and among a small community of people whose faith was very different than the majority of their countrymen. I got absolutely zero sense from this book what it was like to be a Jew in Medieval France, how the Jews acted or lived differently than their countrymen, how the Christian majority really thought about or treated them.
You don't even get a sense of how other Jews, especially women, felt about these three rare birds -- I would have guessed them to face serious disapproval from other less educated women. After all, they are doing really socially challenging things, reading and disucssing Talmud, wearing tefillin...one girl is a "mohel", performing ritual circumcisions, something that even today is mostly done by men.
This book also struck me as derivative of Anne Diamont's much better book, "The Red Tent", with its emphasis on midwifery, and the attendant continual scenes of pregnancies and births. Undoubtedly this was a big part of women's lives at the time -- but in real life, mortality rates were very high, and yet there is little here about dying, still births, or the way women were quickly replaced by new wives. You'd almost think that midwifery was being practiced at a very high level of skill, when in fact it was filthy and primitive. Also, there is nothing in particular here to suggest that educated, Talmudically trained midwives had anymore medical skill to offer than French peasant midwives.
It was interesting to read that Ms. Anton has created a new, bowdlerized (sexless) version of the first book for "pre teens"). (Hint to Ms. Anton: girls of 13, 14 and 15 are not "pre teens".) That's because "Rashi's Daughters" is filled with the kind of howlingly bad sex stuff, presented as "historical", that has ruined plenty of non-Jewish literature -- constant scenes of deflowered virgins, wedding nights, hymens, penetration and endless talk about menstruation (called "flowers" here)....all in pretentious, often made up language instead of talking bluntly about the real thing. Ms. Anton clumsily copies a bit directly from "The Red Tent", where a young girl, worried about her wedding night, has an older sister surgically cut her hymen. Frankly, this isn't credible anyways -- most cultures revere virginity and place a high value on bleeding and pain as a sign of purity. I also can't imagine one sister doing this for another -- ewww.
The problem with this isn't about prudery -- I enjoy lusty, frank, erotic writing and some period stories are highly suited to this kind of treatment. But this topic is supposed to be about unique, educated women -- women with an unsurpassed knowledge for their time of religion, morality, history, tradition, ethics. It would be nice if they could think about something above the level of their groins, at least a little. Even their Talmudic research seems geared to things like contraception.
An even worse subplot is about young Miriam's husband, also a Talmudic scholar, who is a homosexual and sleeping around with his yeshiva study partners. Obviously, there have been gay people in every era and therefore must have existed even in such religious seminaries. But the angle of the story suggests this was common, even the norm, and at the end, the couple seems to have accepted the husband's orientation -- and stays together! I believe in actuality that an openly homosexual man in that time would have been looked at in contempt and driven out of the community. The level of tolerance and acceptance seems far too contemporary.
Unfortunately, the sum total of all this makes the book seems like an outwardly acceptable way to read about a lot of sex stuff -- "see mom, it's about the Talmud!", when in fact the content is mostly at the level of a gossip magazine...whose having sex with who, how good it is, who is pregnant, etc.
The historical aspects are thin, and very laboured. Ms. Anton may indeed be a Talmudic expert -- I can't argue that -- but she is unable to present what I think should be fascinating material in anything but a schoolmarmish way. The worst of the writing, to me, is how she will grasp a phrase or name for something and work it to death -- the French term for a tunic is "bliaut". So -- nobody can just get dressed or put on a tunic...no they have to get their red "bliaut" and put on a bliaut or buy a new bliaut. Ditto for confusing terms like "Hot Fair" -- maybe that is a literal translation, but honestly isn't "SUMMMER FAIR" more logical and meaningful? Basically, it's a fair that takes place in warm weather. There is no reason to use language to obscure and "fancify" everything that could be simple and clear.
If you can't bring yourself to read bodice rippers, and instead want to feel good that you are reading something about Jewish History or the Talmud, I guess books like this exist so you can have your cake and eat it too. But if you really care about these things -- there are far better books on Jewish History, on the Middle Ages and even on the scholar Rashi. Even the book jacket is incredibly lame -- instead of artwork of a medieval Jewish woman, we have an Italian mannerist painting of a Christian noblewoman of the 1600s, by the artist Bronzino. (On the first book, there is a portrait by Leonardo DaVinci!). I know authors do not produce or even OK their book jackets, but it's indicative of a generally slipshod attitude towards both history and the reading audience.
In conclusion: not worth the time it took me to read it.
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5: Rashi's Daughter...worth reading over and over
this is one of a series of three books..written about the great Rabbi Rashi's three daughters. Wonderful reading... and lessons in History and the Jewish beliefs and faith...
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