THE ROMANCE READER

Toren's versatile voice reveals the soul of the rabbi's daughter, Rachel, as she grows up within the repressive Hasadic Jewish community. Her parents count as "sin" everything from reading a romance novel to wearing stockings without seams. Sounding like a classic Jewish mother, Toren renders Rachel's smothering family with sympathy and drama. The book itself occasionally feels as confining as the orthodox lifestyle Rachel is rebelling against as it takes our heroine from her schoolgirl days into an unhappy arranged marriage. But it succeeds in giving outsiders a look inside this secretive sect, whose dress and ways are as mysterious to outsiders as those of Pennsylvania's more famous Amish. M.C. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 00]