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The Singing Mountain
When Mitch decides to live at a yeshiva in Jerusalem, everyone back home thinks he has been brainwashed, but since Mitch has been studying the Torah and observing the Jewish laws, he has felt more a peace than ever before, in a richly textured novel that contrasts the religious and secular worlds.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1998
About the author
Sonia Levitin
64 books41 followersSonia Levitin is a German-American novelist, artist, producer, Holocaust Survivor, and author of over forty novels and picture books for young adults and children, as well as several theatrical plays and published essays on various topics for adults. Her book Incident at Loring Groves won an Edgar Allan Poe Award.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 17, 2015
Jane Yolen once said that religion is the last taboo in children’s literature. The Singing Mountain helps break that taboo. And to me it’s an absolute standout novel, because it tackles specific issues that very few other YA novels address, and does so with incredible perceptiveness.
The two teenage protagonists in this book are Mitch, who embraces a devout life in an Orthodox Jewish community during a trip to Israel, and his cousin Carlie back in L.A., a non-observant Jew struggling to understand Mitch’s transformation, who eventually travels to Israel with Mitch’s mom to try and bring him back home. As the novel develops, the cousins wrestle in complex and authentic ways with so many aspects of religion, from the ritual to the philosophical, from the personal and immediate to the communal and historic.
The way the book digs into the mysterious feelings that tie people to their ancestors and their cultural heritage is pretty much unique in my experience reading young-adult fiction. Furthermore, speaking personally, the complicated ways these Jewish teenagers relate to the physical land of Israel, its people, and its atmosphere ring so true, even though the story takes place back in the 1990s. The book deals with devout religious observance and controversial political issues yet manages to avoid being preachy or putting forth some political agenda.
The book is definitely not perfect, though. Sometimes the plot takes turns and makes revelations that feel like they come out of nowhere. And the romance elements in the story (each cousin has a love interest) seem slightly forced, and sometimes even a distraction from the more central and unique aspects of the story. On top of this, the cousins’ uncertain, maybe-romantic feelings toward each other make for a particularly weird subplot; I mean, props to Levitin for diving into the murky depths of an uncomfortable but actually very believable and probably not that unusual relationship, but to me it seemed to take up too much space in the book without having much bearing on the story or its outcome. Lastly, there are a few very small mistakes in the representation of various aspects of Judaism, but these I could forgive because the vast majority of this book is so spot-on.
This book will without a doubt resonate most powerfully with young American Jews, but the real beauty of it is how universal the story of Mitch’s spiritual search is; I think it will speak to readers of any faith. And it’s an important novel that I wish more people would read, regardless of their faith or whether they have any faith at all, because we need good novels about spirituality and about religious characters of every faith just as much as we need novels about anything or anyone else.
I'm definitely going to read more books by Sonia Levitin now.
The two teenage protagonists in this book are Mitch, who embraces a devout life in an Orthodox Jewish community during a trip to Israel, and his cousin Carlie back in L.A., a non-observant Jew struggling to understand Mitch’s transformation, who eventually travels to Israel with Mitch’s mom to try and bring him back home. As the novel develops, the cousins wrestle in complex and authentic ways with so many aspects of religion, from the ritual to the philosophical, from the personal and immediate to the communal and historic.
The way the book digs into the mysterious feelings that tie people to their ancestors and their cultural heritage is pretty much unique in my experience reading young-adult fiction. Furthermore, speaking personally, the complicated ways these Jewish teenagers relate to the physical land of Israel, its people, and its atmosphere ring so true, even though the story takes place back in the 1990s. The book deals with devout religious observance and controversial political issues yet manages to avoid being preachy or putting forth some political agenda.
The book is definitely not perfect, though. Sometimes the plot takes turns and makes revelations that feel like they come out of nowhere. And the romance elements in the story (each cousin has a love interest) seem slightly forced, and sometimes even a distraction from the more central and unique aspects of the story. On top of this, the cousins’ uncertain, maybe-romantic feelings toward each other make for a particularly weird subplot; I mean, props to Levitin for diving into the murky depths of an uncomfortable but actually very believable and probably not that unusual relationship, but to me it seemed to take up too much space in the book without having much bearing on the story or its outcome. Lastly, there are a few very small mistakes in the representation of various aspects of Judaism, but these I could forgive because the vast majority of this book is so spot-on.
This book will without a doubt resonate most powerfully with young American Jews, but the real beauty of it is how universal the story of Mitch’s spiritual search is; I think it will speak to readers of any faith. And it’s an important novel that I wish more people would read, regardless of their faith or whether they have any faith at all, because we need good novels about spirituality and about religious characters of every faith just as much as we need novels about anything or anyone else.
I'm definitely going to read more books by Sonia Levitin now.
July 18, 2024
The Singing Mountain is a young adult novel by Sonia Levitin (1998). Seventeen-year-old Mitch has never been serious about anything. But when he goes with his temple on a trip to Israel, Mitch makes friends with someone from a Kiruv (outreach) yeshiva and decides to stay in Jerusalem and study Torah. His parents back in Los Angeles freak out, assuming that he's being brainwashed into a cult. Mitch also falls in love with a young woman who's Israeli and religious, though some of her family members are skeptical about it. Mitch's mom decides to fly to Israel in order to convince him to come back, and she brings Carlie to help.
Here's the complicated part – Carlie is Mitch's younger cousin, who's been living with Mitch's family since her parents were killed in a car accident when she was little. She and Mitch have always been close, but their relationship is ambiguous – it's not clear to either of them whether their closeness is like that of siblings or whether it has romantic potential. This ambiguity runs through the book (which alternates perspectives between Mitch and Carlie) and it makes the plot less predictable. I appreciate that none of the characters are demonized, and the reader can see where each is coming from.
The Singing Mountain has some parallels with Strange Relations, a young adult novel from 2007. It turns out that they were written by the same author! She was born in Berlin in 1934, which means that she was 64 and 73 when she wrote the two books. According to her website, she's published 43 books and [as of this review, in 2024] is still going strong at 89.
Here's the complicated part – Carlie is Mitch's younger cousin, who's been living with Mitch's family since her parents were killed in a car accident when she was little. She and Mitch have always been close, but their relationship is ambiguous – it's not clear to either of them whether their closeness is like that of siblings or whether it has romantic potential. This ambiguity runs through the book (which alternates perspectives between Mitch and Carlie) and it makes the plot less predictable. I appreciate that none of the characters are demonized, and the reader can see where each is coming from.
The Singing Mountain has some parallels with Strange Relations, a young adult novel from 2007. It turns out that they were written by the same author! She was born in Berlin in 1934, which means that she was 64 and 73 when she wrote the two books. According to her website, she's published 43 books and [as of this review, in 2024] is still going strong at 89.
February 6, 2015
The religious aspect was very interesting. What wasn't interesting and what I found rather gross was the potential love interest between cousins. Maybe in some cultures that's viewed differently than American views of romantic relationships between first cousins but to me it was creepy. Couldn't get over that.
July 23, 2012
Ok so I can't find this anywhere, I read it a long time ago but does anyone know how it ends?
I remember liking this book a lot
I remember liking this book a lot
August 2, 2010
A bit too much incest, a bit too much proselytizing.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews