Fear and Yoga in New Jersey

by Debra Galant

Nina Gettleman-Summer, a New Jersey yoga teacher, should be calmly guiding her high powered students through their savasanas and their chakras. Instead she is worried about...everything: her new meditation fountain overflowed causing one of her more litigious students to slip and fall; her husband Michael’s job was outsourced to the Phillipines; and a hurricane is bearing down on her parents home in Florida. The last thing Nina needs is her suspicious mother around, wailing about the weather and asking questions about Michael’s job. To complicate matters, her teenage son Adam is showing an interest in having a Bar Mitzvah—even though Nina, never a fan of her Jewish heritage, signed the family up at the local Unitarian Church. The Gettleman-Summers are poised for an awakening which, when it arrives, is deftly portrayed in Galant’s classic screwball style.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Humor, Adult Fiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published March 4, 2008

Reviews

[F.Alan Reynolds · Rating 1 out of 5]

I learned not to read books with New Jersey in the title.

[Marjanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was ok, though it ended up being a little lame. The biggest problem was that none of the characters are really likeable. There were a few funny parts, but overall there was not a whole lot of substance to the story. If anything, this novel only made me more aggravated about Homeland Security.

[sendann · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main problem with this book is that it has not aged well. The story takes place during a particular post 9-11, pre lululemon year, and although I suspect it was well toned for its time, it doesn't work very well now (I'm reading this in late 2016). The main character has a pretty standard issue cacophony of tastes and habits for any recent american moment - vegetarianism, raised jewish but now annoyed about it, overbearing mom, yoga, unitarian church membership. But the terminology is awkward (as is the cocktail of lifestyles I suppose), and her encounters within that world seem very hypothetical, as if the author were kind of making a joke about people like this, instead of actually inhabiting real characters with those interests or characteristics. Anyway, it all felt a little played out and stale to me. There are many better yoga novels out there, but alas I seem to have already plowed through the best of them after all. I wouldn't bother with this one. It's mostly a boring post 9-11 whining self hating jewish woman book, rather than a fun yoga novel. Also, yoga nidra and savasana are totally different things. What is the confusion here?

[Silvio111 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book a chance on the sheer strength of its clever title. (A pun on "FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS" as anyone over the age of 50 will recognize...)

This was an entertaining and engaging novel, with an author's voice that rang true. It had an honest view of self that allowed Debra Galant to satirize her own Jewish identity as well as spotlight how an adolescent would feel about religious and cultural issues, highlighted by the high school experience.

Any book that takes a high school student to an orthodox Jewish rabbi from a motivation of wanting the lucrative rewards of the suburban bar mitzvah, while also sensitizing us to the feelings of the lapsed yoga-instructor-Jew and her laid-off meteorologist husband, while also making us sympathize with the Jewish mother-in-law has accomplished quite a feat.

This territory could have been full of land mines, but this author made it entertaining without being offensive. Quite an accomplishment.

[Nannie Bittinger · Rating 2 out of 5]

For most of this book, I thought it was about a bunch of annoyingly self-absorbed people, especially the Yoga teacher/wife. But I did get several laughs out of it (like when she threw her cell phone and just by chance hit her client in the mouth as she came through the door) and by the end I felt a little sympathy for the whole family. Someone said they really didn't like any of the characters, but over all, I found the men to be way more likable than the women. What did I learn? Well, coriander is the seed of the cilantro plant.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. The characters are interesting, and there are some truly funny moments. I did care enough about the ending to finish it. But I just didn't like the characters, especially the main character. Nina is a yoga instructer who gets into a frenzy over correctly following feng shui. A type-A yoga instructor should be funny, but I just didn't sympathize with her.

[Shari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Totally madcap novel revolving around Nina and her Yoga studio, her husband Michael who has lost his job, and New Jersey and the Jewish community. really three and a half for the crazy , amusing ride but certainly not deep!!

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't read this book. I only read it because I had just finished Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and was tripping over the title. Bad trip. Not even sure why I kept reading. Guess I was hoping Ms. Galant's book would live up to the title she was spoofing.

[Laila · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was too silly, and the characters unrealistic and unsympathetic. I'm mad I wasted a day reading this!

[Miriam Mitchell · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book isn't even worth my time reviewing.

[Lori Schiele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book seemed to get mostly terrible reviews from the Goodreads community (although all for different reasons) and made me nervous to even start it, having just given up on the last book, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. And I liked it. It wasn't a great work of literature, but I think some of the reviewers missed the fact that it was a parody--one long cliche--about Jewish mothers, teenagers, New Yorkers, religions, New Agers and the sad patheticness of the 21st Century. (She even managed to comment on the same thing I have joked before: that with the advent. of cell phones and the loss of telephone booths--where does Superman get changed?)
Do I like the main characters? Not particularly. I sure wouldn't want them as my friends or neighbors or my relatives. And I certainly wouldn't want Nina--the most neurotic woman in the world--to be my yoga instructor. But that's kinda the point. Isn't it?

[Melissa Lee-Tammeus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued by this book - this is a family on the verge of falling apart - or maybe we could say has already fallen apart and is just hanging on as life keeps happening to them in ridiculous ways. It is incredibly reminiscent of the Coen Brothers movie A Serious Man - it even has the Jewish element. I was fascinating by the mom character who is a yoga teacher who lives everything but the yoga life except for when she is teaching and begins to flip out when she imagines a flood from her new fountain is all about bad feng shui. And dad who ends up losing his job, losing his credit card in a stripper joint, and getting arrested. Add in a kid who wants to impress a girl and wants to find a way to get his own bar mitzvah and grandparents who show up unexpected running from a hurricane and you got yourself some entertainment. fter reading this, you may really be okay with your life.

[Sharon Falduto · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novel that's mostly character driven; about a New Jersey family of three each dealing with their own thing: the dad has been fired, the mom is dealing with a lack of feng shui in her yoga studio (according to a new acquaintance), and the son is wondering how he can get a bar mitzvah when his parents aren't really religious. None of the characters are particularly likeable, to me. I think they're supposed to be representative of a certain kind of east coast family that I just don't "get."

[Marla · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me about 80 pages to start enjoying this book even a little. The 5 points of view that the story is ultimately told from... way too many for a book this small, and because of it, nothing felt very deep, including the characters. The ending just tied everything up a little too neatly for my taste.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anything that could go wrong did for this family.lots of plot twists and dark humor. Believable during a pandemic.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Funny in parts, and nicely constructed (the looming hurricane is both a symbol and a plot device!), but not compelling overall. Part of the problem is the book is a satire, and it's hard to be sympathetic to satirical characters. Their selfishness is exaggerated to be funny, but as a result, the reader finds herself recoiling even as she chuckles.

Of all the upper class hippie ideals lampooned in the book, my favorite target was probably the New Age fundamentalists. Nina, the yoga instructor, has rejected her religious upbringing, fed up with the rites, rituals, and literal interpretation of scripture. However, it only takes five minutes with a Feng Shui practitioner before she's embracing a new set of superstitions. Suddenly she's hunting all over Chinatown for a mirror powerful enough to counteract the poison arrow leading into her home. She's pouring over books about frog statue placement as seriously as any Talmudic scholar. That much I enjoyed.

But if you're going to draw in readers with a play on a Hunter S Thompson title, you better be prepared to dial up the zaniness. Nothing in the ballpark of Fear and Loathing here. Just some self absorbed suburbanites and their amusing, awkward daily trials.

[Lori Whitwam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this a few days ago, and at the time I was thinking 4 stars, but now, just a few days later, much of the impression has already faded, so I'm giving it 3.

What happens when everyone in a family has a crisis of "faith" at the same time? Mom's faith in all things natural, holistic and Zen has gotten shaky, and she struggles to restore it, and she discovers her "membership" in her Unitarian church isn't much help.

Dad's job as an airport meteorologist is outsourced to the Philippines, and his strange compulsion to return to the airport leads to trouble... and his wife wants him to stay out of the house so her mother, who is soon to arrive from Florida to avoid an approaching hurricane, leading to more trouble.

Gram and Gramps meet massive difficulties on their journey to New Jersey.

And the son attends a bat mitzvah, and decides that since his mom IS really Jewish, and so he is, too, that he wants a bar mitzvah... only to discover that the local synagogue has actual rules. He doesn't really want to go to Hebrew school... he just wants a big party and lots of money.

Funny, twisted... but somehow in the end not all that satisfying.

[Genesis · Rating 1 out of 5]

In my opinion, it COULD have been a 2 stars, but when the ending came...Down Hill!
*this story had cusing( which I DON'T MIND) it was just the description of PORN on a TV show* yeah that wasn't good. I mean I don't REALLY mind it's just I don't really want to think about it. But was just 1 paragraph.

Now there were MORE things I could hate then like about this. For example, the writing wasn't that good. I'm just not a HUGE fan on so PAST TENSE. It's not that the writings not good, it's just one of those books were its just NOT good.

This book is just one of those books you can't really say anything bad or you MIGHT look like the bad guy, but I have my reasons.

The Conflict in the story
There just wasn't really a problem. I mean yeah, Nina's floor is flooded, her husband is fired, and there's a hurricane coming. Those are all problems, but I wish there was a little more conflict. **This is ONLY an EXAMPLE of what I wish would have happened to make this story more interesting!** For example, if she was falling in love with one of her coworker. That drives the story going! This story just shows the life of a girl with human problems in her life.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I grabbed this book on a whim from a library shelf, and was sorely disappointed.
To be fair, I don't identify with the New Jersey or Jewish subcultures that she touched on; but, as a yoga teacher myself, I was full-on dismayed by the portrayal of the main character, a teacher. The woman missed the entire point of yoga, and persisted in one foolish path after another. She wasn't terribly likable, and insisted on sabotaging her relationships. Secondary characters, while more appealing, kept getting into ridiculous situations that didn't really give them a lot of growth. All in all, I felt that may of the exaggerations were pitiful rather than humorous; I wanted to go in and give the whole family a counseling session of "what not to do".
Beyond the plot and character flaws, the writing itself was uninspired. There were no beautiful turns of phrase, no poetry; foreshadowing was lacking, situations were barely resolved...etc etc. It was a fast and dirty read that I considered abandoning. I just couldn't get invested and kept rolling my eyes at everyone's poor choices.

[Deborah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a fast read and lightly entertaining, but there wasn't really much of a plot and, I have to say, I really disliked the main character, Nina. She was an extremely angry, negative and judgmental person. The reader is privy to her thoughts as she encounters people in a variety of situations, from her own family, to her clients, people encountered while shopping, on a train, etc. and, in all cases, her judgmental and superior thoughts were free-flowing and, frankly, even became a bit depressing to read. I kept waiting for some kind of character arc that maybe would bring her to some type of redemption, but nope. She remained hateful throughout the entire book. I ended the book thinking, 'did the writer of this book expect us to root for Nina?' I have to say also, the fact that she is meant to be a yoga teacher or guru is especially laughable. She is probably the most un-zen-like person imaginable. Having her for a yoga coach would be horrible.

[Felicity · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reviews by other Good Reads readers of this book have generally been negative and I can see why...these characters aren't sympathetic, not one bit. They're all just a little too self-absorbed for anyone's liking. But I think that's the point, or at least I hope that's the point. They characters are parodies...hyped-up on steroids versions of exurban mums and teenagers. I think the technique worked better with her first book ("Rattled"). Here it just falls a little flat on its face because the plot extremes aren't well...very funny. A parody only works if it's funny. Otherwise, it's just kind of mildly boring and unconvincing as it managed to be here. But I do agree with Galant on one point...I just really don't get all that feng shui stuff (to put it kindly). What is all that about?

[Monica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Warning: contains spoilers.

Saw this at the library and thought, ok, this looks like some nice light reading about a yoga teacher in a wealthy suburb of NJ. However, on one of the first days her studio is open, her "chakra fountain" overflows, flooding the waiting area, and causing one of her students to slip and fall, injuring herself badly. (But, since the student shouldn't have been late and rushing to yoga, it's her fault, right? Er, not really.) Later, the yoga teacher will accidentally knock some of this students teeth out. Real funny. Oh, and on the same day as the flood, the teacher's husband is fired, and her parents decide they want to come visit.

I enjoyed this book when I started it, but it quickly went downhill. I mainly skimmed it to get to the end, and realized it had been a waste of time to have even picked it up.

[Wellington · Rating 1 out of 5]

With Presidents now caught with their pants down, sports heroes just looking for money, and the politics of the workplace, all I had was my visits to my yoga studio for solace. I kept a safe distance from my yoga teachers wanting to believe there are some sane people in this world.

So, I picked up this book to give some depth to my 2d yogi heroes. I shouldn't have.

The characters were unlikeable, especially the yoga teacher. The characters just kept shooting themselves in the foot and stuck in their own little world.

I had to finish to see where this accident would go and how they would tie all this together at the end.

Perhaps, it if were Jewish and more suburban I would enjoy this more. But for now, this book best serves as contrast and appreciation for the next book which I will surely enjoy more than this.

[laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

how can anyone have such a crappy series of events occur in such a short span of time? the title was apt and the rambling nature of the story was a pseudo-clever variant of thompson's classic. instead of incidents in the infamous cadillac in las vegas,we are introduced to episodes with a prius in suburban new jersey. yoga instructors lost their reputation of purity, balance, and peacefulness (literally). the book was meant to be humorous, but it lacked a "wet-the-pants" kind of humor for which the premise bestowed.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm one of those suckers that will read a book if they use the word "yoga" in the title. Most of the times though, yoga has very little to do with the book, as in the case with this one. The main character in this story was suppose to be a yoga instructor, but if she were my teacher, I would quit her class. Despite the characters all being unlikable, the story kept me interested, but I was disappointed in the weird ending. I think a title that would have made more sense would be "Fear and Feng Shui in New Jersey".

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since I just returned from birdwatching in New Jersey, and I do yoga regularly, my husband brought this home from the public library for me. He said it was on the shelf next to one of his books. The author has created a caricature of a vegetarian, yoga-practicing, Prius driving suburbanite, who left her Jewish heritage for the Unitarian church. The plot is entertaining, with a meteorologist husband and 13 year old son, and very stereotypical Jewish parents creating havoc when all the protagonist wants is peaceful breathing.

[Tracy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was horrid. I thought it would be a fun read. The characters were unrealistic and unsympathetic. I guess the only one I felt sympathy for was the Grandpa. And that's just because he was old and slow.
I don't really care to read the details of pubescent boys dreams of girls. Seemed forced, not to mention gross.
Oh, I just can't say anything good about this.
Total disappointment. Why do I bother wasting my time on this drivel????

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure it was supposed to be funny...The main character is a perfection seeking, new age believing, yoga, husband nagging, schmuch. Everything goes wrong because the family doesn't communicate with one another like normal people should do but she chalks it up to feng shui stuff. It ends up alright but just because some lawyers got involved and cut the prison sentence from 10 years to 4 months.

Yeah, you thought you had a bad couple of days.

[Michele Minor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a typical upper middle class family living in New Jersey. The father’s job is outsourced to the Philippians right when a hurricane is about to hit Florida where his in-laws live. They are Reform Jews while the dad and his family go to a Unitarian Church. Nina the wife owns her own yoga studio and when a litigious student is injured she worries about how to pay for it. This book takes a humorous look at middle class America today.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being as I live in New Jersey I took a small amount of pride in the fact that I knew the places this lady was talking about. But I couldn't get past the silly typos (missing words, mainly) and the many mentions of The Sopranos (we get it...shut up). I read this book in two days. It's nothing special. Kind of a wacky story with wacky characters. Sort of chic-lit for the over 40 crowd.