A review by perusinghannah
It's a Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes, and Other Jewish Stories by Katherine Locke, Laura Silverman
4.0
(7.6/10) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
It's not often that I read an anthology that scrapes together more than three stars, because there's always stories I dislike, but somehow It's a Whole Spiel managed four!
This collection of stories by and for members of the Jewish community did a great job of illustrating what it's like to grow up more Jew-ish than *JEWISH*, and while I could've done with a little more diversity in ethnicities than what we got, I want to praise it for that.
I think there's still a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be Jewish, and I would have loved to have this collection as a teen (if only to pass it around and save myself some repetitive conversations).
Of course, this anthology too had stories I really didn't care for (most notably Good Shabbos and Find the River), but it mostly had stories that I absolutely loved. I think my favorite in here was Neilah, which (for reasons I still don't fully comprehend) hit me really hard and had me crying.
If you want to read a few ownvoice slice-of-life stories about being a Jewish teen (*and* being part of the LGBTQIA+ community, having mental illness, finding your political voice, etc.), I'd highly recommend this one! It introduced me to a lot of new authors that I now desperately want to read more from, and I'm excited to explore their works.
It's not often that I read an anthology that scrapes together more than three stars, because there's always stories I dislike, but somehow It's a Whole Spiel managed four!
This collection of stories by and for members of the Jewish community did a great job of illustrating what it's like to grow up more Jew-ish than *JEWISH*, and while I could've done with a little more diversity in ethnicities than what we got, I want to praise it for that.
I think there's still a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be Jewish, and I would have loved to have this collection as a teen (if only to pass it around and save myself some repetitive conversations).
Of course, this anthology too had stories I really didn't care for (most notably Good Shabbos and Find the River), but it mostly had stories that I absolutely loved. I think my favorite in here was Neilah, which (for reasons I still don't fully comprehend) hit me really hard and had me crying.
If you want to read a few ownvoice slice-of-life stories about being a Jewish teen (*and* being part of the LGBTQIA+ community, having mental illness, finding your political voice, etc.), I'd highly recommend this one! It introduced me to a lot of new authors that I now desperately want to read more from, and I'm excited to explore their works.