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Title: Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers: An Intimate Journey among Hasidic Girls
ISBN: 0814751970
Author:
Stephanie Levine
Carol Gilligan
Publicate Date: 2004-08-06
Publish: 2004-08-06
List Price: $20.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $15.74
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $8.50
Amazon Merchant Price: $18.00
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| Customer Review: |
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1: love, love, love it
This was such a wonderful eye-opening book about the variety of girls in the Lubavitch community in Crown Heights. This book breaks the stereotype that says that girls from very religious families become "drone-like" or don't have their individuality. Within their very prescribed world, because of the teachings and influence of the rebbe, there are countless opportunities for personal exploration and expression. It was inspiring to me as a mother of a girl as well; I want my daughter to have some of the passion and commitment displayed in these pages!
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2: Fascinating and Readable
This is a book version of Stephanie Levine's doctoral dissertation, but don't let that put you off--all it means is that it is very well researched and has some theoretical underpinnings laid out in the opening and closing chapters, which are quite readable in themselves. HOwever, the meat of the book is the profiles of individual Hasidic girls who run the gamut from intensely religious to rebelling against the norms of their enclave. The girls all come across as fascinating individuals and Levine is a sympathetic portrayer of them. She can appreciate both the strengths and the confining aspects of the Hasidic world, and marvels at the strong assertiveness of these girls who have been educated and largely socialized in a single sex environment. For anyone who has looked at these communities from the outside and wondered what it's like to live or grow up within them, particularly as a woman, this is a fascinating book that in no way reads like a textbook or a heavy academic tome. Excellent!
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3: interesting, insightful and a little long
This book was really different. The introduction and the conclusion were really too long and drawn out, however, the stories of the girls Levine met with and talked to were captivating and insightful. The writing seemed to be twofold, a long, drawn out sociological blah blah, but a great, funny, quirky, interesting middle. Worth the read for anyone who wants to learn more about the Lubavitch culture, about frum teenage girls and who wants a light read.
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4: An excellent read
Having been Lubavitch, I read Levine's book as both former insider and outsider. Her portrayal of the Lubavitch world captured its essence, and her description of the variety of personalities within it was also apt. Unlike an earlier reviewer, I considered the deliberate care taken to obscure the identities of the girls to be important and in keeping with academic ethics.
The Lubavitch world holds within it a certain comfort and certainty, simply because all the answers are there. Unfortunately, as we read in the cases of several of the girls portrayed in this book, there is little to no place for the girl or woman who thinks critically, questions the tenets of Chabad-Lubavitch, or who is called to higher education. For example, I wonder if one of the women portrayed ever completed her medical training.
An excellent study that offers the reader insightful glimpses into the world of Lubavitch girls.
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5: Great insight into a different world
I loved this book. I really got an inside view of a world far different than the secular one I live in. The author was honest about her own points of view and her own biases. I really feel like I understand and know about the Lubavitch lifestyle after reading this book. As a secular Jew, I felt like I related to the author and how she viewed the unique culture of Crown Heights. A wonderful ethnography!
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