Between Gods

11 August 2015

by Allison Pick

This book is a memoir. It's like an autobiography in that it is a story about the author's life written by the author herself. However, while an autobiography is a story about the author's whole life, a memoir tells the story about one part of the author's life. Allison Pick writes about the time in her life when she goes through the process of becoming a Jew. 

Why I Read This Book

I loved Allison Pick's previous novel: Far To Go which is a story about Jewish children during World War II who were sent by their families on trains to England to save them from the persecution elsewhere in Europe. I knew Far To Go had ties to the author's own life as her Jewish ancestors had fled Europe and had hidden their Jewishness (is that a word??) for decades. I hoped that Between Gods would shed a little more light on her family's history and offer further insight to Far To Go.

 

What I Thought About This Book

Allison Pick writes very beautifully. However, I did not find Between Gods very compelling. Allison's father was Jewish but her mother was not. Therefore, Allison, although it seems she should be half Jewish, isn't actually Jewish at all. Allison describes being pulled so strongly by her Jewish heritage that she wants to convert to Judaism. She doesn't feel any pull from her mother's background at all. 

My feeling about the whole thing is this. 

Parts of Allison's family went through some horrendous experiences during World War II.  Allison is alive because her grandparents fled Europe and came to Canada, renouncing their Jewish heritage, and becoming Christian.  Allison, while researching and writing Far To Go, was deeply affected by the hollocaust stories within her own family as well as others' accounts (who wouldn't be?).  Because of her Jewish roots, I believe she felt a personal connection to hollocaust victims.  I believe she also suffered some survivor guilt.  I also believe that she didn't feel connected to her mother's Christian heritage because it wasn't as interesting or compelling.  During a lot of the book, I didn't relate to Allison at all.  I felt that she was over-dramatizing her situation - especially in the parts where she tries to convince her father (who IS Jewish but is a practicing Christian) to return to his Jewish roots.

What saved the book for me and kept me reading were the snippets of the other parts of her life during the time she converted to Judaism: her wedding, her miscarriage, her first child's birth.  I also appreciated her descriptions of depression.  That said, I wouldn't read this book to figure out how to get out of a depression because this book seems to imply that you will no longer be depressed if you convert to Judaism.  That doesn't make much sense to me..

~mom