(I refer here not to the author's occasional didactic between "mazel, luck" and "sekhel, logic that adds charm and the occasional diversion, and even, its own dimension of depth.)

This is a book about three generations of Jewish women, the first of whom fled the shtetl (so much for Anatevka) for Warsaw, where she becomes a theatre star. So, already icons are crashing as a modern American writer presents pre-Holocaust Warsaw as a good place, as a center of culture, as an exciting place. The next generation is the single mother, followed by the granddaughter, a mathematician, who ends up in a new Jewish shtetl in New Jersey.

The freedom with which these themes are woven not just into good storytelling, but good storytelling that ignores lines and limits that have defined Jewish writing since the Holocaust is intensely refreshing. True, it wouldn't have worked if the story wasn't so good, but would even such a good story have been so good if the author were not treading beyond former limits?

I wish I knew more about the author and her other books.

Review: This is an intelligently written story of three generations of Jewish women. The major part is given to the Polish born grandmother the flamboyant actress Sasha but the key element in the work is the relationships between the generations. The grandmother abandoned Jewish religious life, the daughter is an introverted classical scholar, and the granddaughter also a professor returns to Jewish religious life.
As Murray Baumgarten parts out in an extended review of the book the narrative - view- point often shifts, and the focus is not so much on one person as on relationships.
The book is interesting and has a 'smartness' about it. The central idea that it is Mazel ( Luck) and not Saychel (Wisdom) that is the main factor in life is elaborated through comparison with Hume's famous analysis showing our ordinary conception of 'causation' in life cannot be proven. i.e. there is not the connection of events which is simple, direct causation but rather their conjoining. Goldstein seems to suggest that this means that Life goes more randomly than lovers of planning and order would like to suggest. My own thought is that this is a bit simplistic, and that a lot depends in life on the 'saychel' we have in dealing with our own 'mazel' and that 'mazel ' too may come of 'saychel'.


Review: Even though the characters in the book are very different from my own family, "Mazel" affirmed many of my personal feelings about being Jewish. It brought to mind many of the stories told to me about Eastern Europe by my parents and older relatives, while at the same time opening up my mind to new aspects of Jewish life. And it made me want to find out more about my own family history.
The way the three generations of women view the world and Judaism is fascinating, and totally believable. I have given this book as a present many times, and have reread it more than once.
I wish I could read more about this fascinating collection of women!

Review: After struggling through the first few chapters, I find that this book has appeal only to those readers who are strong-willed grandmothers, or those who always wanted to be so. Totally unrealistic, this book is a strong willed grandmother fantasy come true, but utterly irritating for those of us of the younger generations. Let me explain. This grandmother wears leather pants and is a snob in every way towards her very own granddaughter. The grandmother thinks that Manhattan is the center of the world, and that she is the only person that matters because she was once an actress. She cares more about herself than her own child and grandchild. Her granddaughter and her daughter are unrealistically wishy-washy, passive characters, and they accept their (grand)mother's never-ending bossiness without a second thought, without ever angering an iota. And it isn't as if the story were dealing with this problem, as a theme; it's just the 'backdrop'.