I Am Forbidden

I Am Hooked

This was a wonderful first book I believe for this author that kept me glued to my chair wanting more. I have to admit that I never read a book so fast in a matter of hours. It was quite an interesting story line and felt that I was in the characters shoes through their flood of emotions. By reading the novel's description, I would have passed on this read. I am sure glad that I second guessed myself to completing this novel and receiving a lesson in history that surpasses time.

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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Thoughtful and Thought-Provoking

I Am Forbidden is the story of two Hasidic Jewish girls raised together as sisters in WWII Europe. Mila, made an orphan by the atrocities committed against her people in that war, is delivered to Atara's family by another war-made orphan, Josef, a Hasidic Jew being hidden by a Christian woman. As the years pass, Mila's faith intensifies, in part because she hopes it will lead to her reunification with her parents. She and Josef find their way to each other again and marry. In those same years, Atara's faith falters, despite her intense bond with Mila, and the girls' relationship is broken. A secret eventually returns them to each other.

The persecution of Jews during WWII and the Hasidism figure prominently in the novel and the reader learns quite a bit throughout its course about Hasidism, in particular, as it is an insular community about which most readers will, given its insular nature, know rather little. (The author was born into, and raised in, a Hasidic sect.) The reason I think the novel succeeds so well is that though its conflicts are situated in a particular time among a particular group of people, the questions it is exploring are universal: when we find ourselves trying to fend off or recover from the worst of life's cruelties and blows, what will sustain and heal us? What do we do when those things are in conflict? I Am Forbidden is a thoughtful, historical novel, written by a seemingly knowledgeable and sensitive author. It was a pleasure to be in the world she created, even if it offered no easy answers to the questions it presented.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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excellent book, could not put it down, shows what religion does

excellent book, could not put it down, shows what religion does to ones soul

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Great book

I was instantly hooked. I dont like when people talk about the characters and the plot of a book, so I will simply say that if you are somewhat familiar with Orthodox Jewish culture and you love a well written book, this is for you. I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading this.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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I was very disappointed.

This book is actualky only about 150 pages. This does not give enough time to really develope tge characters plus it costs as much as much as a book with ywuce as many oages. I was hoping to get more insight on the cylture.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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A heart-wrenching exploration of human longings and ambiguity,

A heart-wrenching exploration of human longings and ambiguity, following four generations of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family from early World War II in central Europe to 21st century New York City. Rich in details about a highly insular religious community, it offers much for intellectual and historic consideration but is, first and foremost, a deeply engrossing tale of love and personal conflict. The story begins like many tales of Holocaust victims and survivors, but quickly involves the reader in both the specific details of a Hasidic sect and the universals of human motives and emotions. This is a slim book and a fast read, but it stays in the mind and heart.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Very good book!

This is a story about a fundamentalist Jewish community right after WWII- the story is about how the children were raised and the pain this fundamentalist religious sect caused the women with their edicts. The way women were treated was just awful with the men having full control of everything or else. There are small parts where concentration camps were mentioned. Many of the main characters lost parents and siblings. The story followed a couple of these children into adulthood. Along with the pain of loss was the dogmatic religious parts - those groups chose to not deviate from the strictness of their sect and it seemed to me they made life so much more difficult for these people. First it was the fear of WWII, and then pleasing the rabbis. I would have loved this book to be much longer - I just lived in the pages as the story progressed.

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Good idea, poor execution

The story was decent but the book was boring.

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The book was just okay, not great, or even good

I liked the history and the cultural insights, but found the actions of several of the characters improbable. That a religious woman like Mila would act ad she did doesn't make sense, andher granddaughter, Judith, too? Lives are ruined because of decisions made with faulty thinking and no insight. It all doesn't ring true. I'd have preferred to learn more of Atara's life, ss she seems like a more interesting person. Knowing that the author herself escaped from a similar background, it seems to me that the depiction of the closed-mindedness of the Satmar community is meant as a slap at all the author left behind. I'm surr that there are people in thatcommunity who take joy in their way of living, but all that comes through in this book is negativity.

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