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A review by lesserjoke
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman
4.0
This series has been on my radar for a while, and although I'm not sure I'm going to read all dozen volumes, the first one is pretty neat. It's one of those stories in which a police investigation is aided by a civilian of nontraditional wisdom and insight, but instead of an elderly spinster like Miss Marple, the surprising hero here is the only rabbi in the small New England town where a young woman has just been found murdered. He's briefly considered and dismissed as a suspect, and thereafter strikes up a friendship with the Irish Catholic detective in charge of the case.
The portrayal of Judaism in this book is a great example of accurate #ownvoices representation, all the more remarkable for having been written back in 1964. Lots of smaller details make me smile in recognition of temple life, and author Harry Kemelman does a good job of explaining Jewish things to his Christian characters and readers, like how our prayers are mostly grateful rather than petitionary ("Thank you for X" and not "Please provide Y"). Even the ugly antisemitism that the protagonist encounters feels textured from real experience, in contrast to the sort of simple Jew-hating bigotry I sometimes see gentile writers attempt.
With so much focus on incorporating these elements of authentic Jewishness into the narrative, the actual mystery plot often seems like an afterthought -- and a foreword notes that it did in fact come late in the creative process, at an editor's suggestion. I still enjoy the finished result a whole lot, but I think I might have liked the original vision for a novel about navigating simple congregation and community tensions even better.
--Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to support these reviews and weigh in on what I read next!--
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
The portrayal of Judaism in this book is a great example of accurate #ownvoices representation, all the more remarkable for having been written back in 1964. Lots of smaller details make me smile in recognition of temple life, and author Harry Kemelman does a good job of explaining Jewish things to his Christian characters and readers, like how our prayers are mostly grateful rather than petitionary ("Thank you for X" and not "Please provide Y"). Even the ugly antisemitism that the protagonist encounters feels textured from real experience, in contrast to the sort of simple Jew-hating bigotry I sometimes see gentile writers attempt.
With so much focus on incorporating these elements of authentic Jewishness into the narrative, the actual mystery plot often seems like an afterthought -- and a foreword notes that it did in fact come late in the creative process, at an editor's suggestion. I still enjoy the finished result a whole lot, but I think I might have liked the original vision for a novel about navigating simple congregation and community tensions even better.
--Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to support these reviews and weigh in on what I read next!--
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter