Trail of Miracles by Smadar Herzfeld: A Review

Gittel, the daughter of a torah scholar, is only twelve when she is sought out as a wife for a much older rabbi.  She doesn't like her husband's cold and unfeeling ways of dealing with her but finds comfort in her father-in-law, a man who is renowned among the Hasidim in her community.  She also finds great joy in her two sons.  When both her father-in-law and husband die in quick succession, Gittel is encouraged by her community to seek a new husband.  Her husband visits her in dreams to demand that she not remarry and Gittel is more than happy to oblige, remembering the loneliness she felt in her marriage.  She instead decides to embark on a journey to Jerusalem as she once did as a child with her brother.

This book was very short and an interesting story but it was a bit slow for me.  I felt that the story had a lot more potential than was presented.  There were simply not enough words for good characters to be built but they were likeable.  I liked Gittel and her story.  One thing that I liked about this book was that the author did not take a judgmental viewpoint about the cultures that she was writing about.  All religions and cultures in the book were treated with respect.  I have read a lot of books about the Hasidim and that is not always the case.  While there are many practices of their culture that modern Westerns may not understand, such as Gittel's young marriage, one must understand that this was not so uncommon in the community at that time.  While the book was much slower than I wished it would have been and was not as developed as I would have liked, I still enjoyed the book.  I think it would be a good book for those looking for a cultural read or historical fiction, especially for those interested in Eastern European Jewish culture.

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