Review: Yeshiva Girl by Rachel Mankowitz is the story of Izzy. While dealing with horrors at home, Izzy also has to acclimate to attending a new Jewish Orthodox school. I learned so much about the Jewish Orthodox religion while reading this gripping auto-biographical fiction story. However, religion isn’t the focus of this book, it’s human nature, teenage awkwardness, bullies, sexual abuse, and most importantly, coping with life.
Yeshiva Girl by Rachel Mankowitz Published by Independently Published on 11/16/2018
Genres: Fiction, Women's Literature
Format: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 252
Buy on AmazonYESHIVA GIRL is IZZY’s story. She is a fifteen-year-old Long Island girl who has never fit in at her liberal Jewish day school, but when her father drags her to the Orthodox Yeshiva across the Island, she’s conflicted. Izzy doesn’t trust her father or his newly religious behaviors. But, the principal of the yeshiva is not as rigid as she expects him to be, and the new synagogue the family attends has its benefits too.
The problem is, all of this is a scrim to hide her father’s escalating problems at work. He has been accused once again of inappropriate sexual conduct with one of his young female students. And Izzy believes that the accusations are true, and just the beginning of the real story of who her father is.
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My review: Yeshiva Girl by Rachel Mankowitz
Yeshiva Girl might not have shown up on my radar if I hadn’t discovered Rachel Mankowitz’s blog. I enjoy reading her thoughts on life, so I made time to read the novel. It was a great decision.
This riveting story could have been pulled straight from today’s headlines. It touched my heart to read of Isabel’s troubled life.
As her father tried to hide his atrocities behind ever-increasing religiousness, he forced Isabel into stricter observances also. Switching her to a more stringent Jewish Orthodox school (Yeshiva) adds to her inner turmoil.
The author articulates the fifteen-year-old mind so well; you feel every thought and emotion. Whether it’s fitting in at school, navigating the tricky discovery of boys, or sorting the turmoil ricocheting through Isobel’s brain, it all rings true in this book.
The family that should have protected and cared for Isabel let her down, time and again. This happens all too frequently in life.
I reserve the option to edit this review later. I’m having a hard time putting my thoughts into words as I replay sections of the story in my head. Yeshiva Girl is a book that will stay with you for a long time.
Yeshiva Girl is an excellently autobiographic fiction novel that deserves a broader audience. The book goes beyond religious beliefs to touch the heart of the reader.
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Review: Yeshiva Girl by Rachel Mankowitz
About Rachel Mankowitz
Rachel Mankowitz lives on Long Island with her family, including her two dogs, Cricket and Ellie, and the memories of all of the dogs that came before. She has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Manhattanville College, a Masters of Fine Arts in fiction, from Queens University of Charlotte, and is working on a Masters in Social Work from Fordham University. And yes, that is a lot of student loan debt.
Rachel also has a weekly blog on Wordpress called The Cricket Pages, where she weaves together stories about her dogs with anything else she can think of.
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Author Interview:
Do you have a set writing schedule?
Not at all. I have a pile of notebooks on my bedside table, and it stares at me until I feel motivated (or guilty)enough to get some writing done. And then I move the notebooks over to the computer in the living room, where they stare at me until I get my typing and editing done, and then the notebooks go back to the bedside table pile, and the process continues. I write when I have the energy to do it, and when my anxiety calms down enough to make the writing possible.
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was ten years old, I sat myself down and weighed my career options: writer, singer, or dancer. I loved to dance, but I had bad knees and flat feet, so the chances of dancing professionally were slim to none. I also loved to sing, and sang stories to myself walking through my neighborhood, or the halls at school, which led to exactly as much bullying as you’d think. But my stage fright was starting to kick in by then, and I wasn’t sure I’d be up to performing for crowds every night, which is what I assumed I would have to do, so I put that option down as a maybe. And then there was writing; I could write whenever and wherever I wanted (I wrote a lot of stories during school), and I was sure I could just publish my books as soon as I finished writing them, so, I decided to be a writer, and started work on my first novel.
What do you read for pleasure?
I love mysteries and crave stories that lead to some kind of resolution and justice. I keep hoping that, at some point, I will fill up my tank with enough mysteries that I will be able to produce a mystery myself, but I’m not quite there yet.
Is there anything you would like my readers to know about you and your book?
Yeshiva Girl is autobiographical fiction because when I started writing it, I knew I wasn’t ready to write a memoir, even though memoirs were taking over the publishing world. I wanted the chance to change things in my story, in order to make the story better, and to protect (or avoid writing about) certain people. But most of all, I wanted to bring my grandfather back from the dead, in a non-sci-fi sort of way. I missed him, and I wanted to spend more time with him. Writing a blog has been an exercise in learning how to write memoir bit by bit, and it has been an incredible learning experience, but I still love the freedom of fiction, and the chance to change the world to fit my vision.
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Review: Yeshiva Girl by Rachel Mankowitz
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I’ve heard good things about this one. Thanks for joining my #ThrowbackThursday link party with TWO posts! Wow!