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Twelve-year-old Yosef Bamberger is spirited, joyous, and clumsy. He's a Jewish boy living in Brooklyn in the 1970s. He has everything a kid could want: two best friends, a girl at school who likes him, and a wise rabbi who is ready to guide him through the sacred rite of passage that culminates in his Bar Mitzvah. This idyl is destroyed when Yosef's father's new employment demands they move to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where there are many Southern Baptists and no New York Orthodox Jews.
The story delivers scenes that mix seriousness with hilarity. Gram's kitchen accident and Yosef's secret celebration of Christmas with the Macaffee family compel the reader to feel both sympathy and mirth. Some situations are serious and dramatic but are always balanced in the narrative with laugh-out-loud comic relief. Yosef's journey into puberty gives entertaining insights into the boy-to-man transition. All along, Yosef charms with his sincerity. When he moves to Tennessee, this trait helps him acclimate. But his family and Jewish identity cause tension when he starts to feel comfort praising Jesus. Readers should be prepared to cry because the stakes get high, and the emotional journey to maturity is rocky.
This book is full of colorful characters and experiences that inspire deeper thinking about accepting one another wholeheartedly, even when people are so different and imperfect. This story confronts anti-semitism, the lynch mob, and religious zealotry. The narrative includes perspectives from multiple characters and multiple generations, enabling readers to sympathize with many worldviews. The Bar Mitzvah and baptism are equally honored and dignified. This is a complex, heartwarming story of hard-won comradery and love. When the stakes turn desperate, will it be family, friends, religion, death, or home-grown compassion that brings everyone together again? Rosenberg's novel is a read-the-last-page-and-start-again-right-away kind of book.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review