Mazel

by Rebecca Goldstein

Mazel means luck in Yiddish, and luck is the guiding force in this magical and mesmerizing novel that spans three generations. Sasha Saunders is the daughter of a Polish rabbi who abandons the shtetl and wins renown as a Yiddish actress in Warsaw and New York. Her daughter Chloe becomes a professor of classics at Columbia. Chloe’s daughter Phoebe grows up to become a mathematician who is drawn to traditional Judaism and the sort of domestic life her mother and grandmother rejected.

Genres: Jewish, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Judaism, Contemporary, Novels, Literature

378 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein grew up in White Plains, New York, and graduated summa cum laude from Barnard College, receiving the Montague Prize for Excellence in Philosophy, and immediately went on to graduate work at Princeton University, receiving her Ph.D. in philosophy. While in graduate school she was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship and a Whiting Foundation Fellowship.

After earning her Ph.D. she returned to her alma mater, where she taught courses in philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, the rationalists, the empiricists, and the ancient Greeks. It was some time during her tenure at Barnard that, quite to her own surprise, she used a summer vacation to write her first novel, The Mind-Body Problem. As she described it,

"To me the process is still mysterious. I had just come through a very emotional time, having not only become a mother but having also lost my father, whom I adored. In the course of grieving for my father and glorying in my daughter, I found that the very formal, very precise questions I had been trained to analyze weren’t gripping me the way they once had. Suddenly, I was asking the most `unprofessional’ sorts of questions (I would have snickered at them as a graduate student), such as how does all this philosophy I’ve studied help me to deal with the brute contingencies of life? How does it relate to life as it’s really lived? I wanted to confront such questions in my writing, and I wanted to confront them in a way that would insert `real life’ intimately into the intellectual struggle. In short I wanted to write a philosophically motivated novel."

The Mind-Body Problem was published by Random House and went on to become a critical and popular success.

More novels followed: The Late-Summer Passion of a Woman of Mind; The Dark Sister, which received the Whiting Writer’s Award, Mazel, which received the 1995 National Jewish Book Award and the 1995 Edward Lewis Wallant Award; and Properties of Light: A Novel of Love, Betrayal, and Quantum Physics. Her book of short stories, Strange Attractors, received a National Jewish Book Honor Award. Her 2005 book Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel, was featured in articles in The New Yorker and The New York Times, received numerous favorable reviews, and was named one of the best books of the year by Discover magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Sun. Goldstein’s most recent published book is, Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew who Gave Us Modernity, published in May 2006, and winner of the 2006 Koret International Jewish Book Award in Jewish Thought. Her new novel, Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, will be published by Pantheon Books.

In 1996 Goldstein became a MacArthur Fellow, receiving the prize which is popularly known as the “Genius Award.” In awarding her the prize, the MacArthur Foundation described her work in the following words:

"Rebecca Goldstein is a writer whose novels and short stories dramatize the concerns of philosophy without sacrificing the demands of imaginative storytelling. Her books tell a compelling story as they describe with wit, compassion and originality the interaction of mind and heart. In her fiction her characters confront problems of faith: religious faith and faith in an ability to comprehend the mysteries of the physical world as complementary to moral and emotional states of being. Goldstein’s writings emerge as brilliant arguments for the belief that fiction in our time may be the best vehicle for involving readers in questions of morality and existence."

Goldstein is married to linguist and author Steven Pinker. She lives in Boston and in Truro, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Kressel Housman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t imagine this book having much appeal to non-Jews, and it may not hit all the right notes with every Jewish reader either, but it was absolutely pitch-perfect to me. The ideal audience has to love descriptions of traditional Jewish life, from yom tov celebrations to Yiddish folklore. At the same time, the reader has to be open to criticisms of that world. The main character is a Jewish rebel, as are most of the secondary characters, so if you can’t sympathize with them and their choices, this is not the book for you. But if your family is a mix of Jewish alphabet soup with FFBs, BTs, and OTDs, and you’re sympathetic to all three, then you’ll love this book as much as I did. After I read it, I wondered if there was any point in finishing my own novel. I doubt I could possibly say anything better than Rebecca Goldstein already has.

When the book opens, we are introduced to Sasha, former diva of the Yiddish theatre, now in her seventies. She’s kvetching non-stop about the suburban town where she’s being forced to stay for the weekend, and the problem is one that will probably be even more familiar to secular Jews than to religious ones: the urbane intellectual and creative is looking down at her new crass, materialistic, suburban in-laws.

After a few chapters, the book takes you back to Sasha’s childhood in the shtetl and the heyday of her stardom in the Yiddish theatre. In the transition between these two sections is the observation that parents across Europe were having their hearts broken by children leaving them for a world they could not understand. That got me where I live. We’re truly in a parallel time. Kids today are still breaking their frum parents’ hearts. The only difference is that perhaps we’re more worldly now and understand a little better just how and why they’re changing.

The last section of the book returns to the present, but now that the reader knows Sasha’s whole back story, the details get filled in more colorfully. The time jumps aren’t always clear, especially from the opening scene of the present to the near future after that present, but it works when you get to the ending. There were also a few inaccuracies in the details of the shtetl section. (Hasidim dancing on Shavuos? Why not Simchas Torah? And was the “very narrow bridge” of Rebbe Nachman that well-known before the twentieth century song?) But despite these flaws, I loved the book. The overall theme is about tradition, rebellion, and return, which is the eternal cycle of Jewish history. So even though the next generation’s choices inevitably take their elders by surprise, the best we can do is understand and love each other throughout.

[Elias Mendel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did not expect to cry on the train finishing this this afternoon.
Beautiful depiction of intergenerational lives, the joy of difference of experience of the difference between luck and brains and truly just living.
I really liked the vivid polish Jewish life it depicted and really appreciate it not focusing on the holocaust, although it was a shadow over the book.
Almost magical realism at times, the weaving of stories, of religious practice and Yiddish theatre worked very well.
The embrace of family love and the ache of romantic love and loss I think was what made me cry but I am also hungover so idk.
It deleted my last review so I hope this stays :(
Maybe a little bit too much detail on religious practices but also I guess it's a dying world so nice to keep it alive.
Also could be read as an embrace of tradition over reform ?
But got me thinking alot about generations of women and celebrating our differences out quirks our what makes us us

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are so many great aspects of this book, a fascinating historical look into Ashkenazi (specifically Polish but whatev) culture on the cusp of the Holocaust- children leaving isolated shtetls for the big city, chassidim versus assimilation and greater acceptance (or so they thought,) the advent of Yiddish theatre (guuuh) and Jewish political stances, particularly Zionism- always stands out to me, of course, due to it's prominence today, but to think of it *then*, and to hear young Warsaw Jews, unaware of what was right ahead for them, speaking of the merits (or lack thereof) of a Jewish homeland.

All fascinating parts of the novel, but Rebecca took on too much, IMHO. We really didn't need to jump into "the present" to see what life was like for Sasha's daughter and granddaughter (interesting, yes. Especially the circular ending where Sasha feels like Phoebe is choosing the "shtetlized" life that she herself shirked off.) But the middle section, Sasha (then Sorel's) rich childhood in Shlufchev and her young adulthood with the Yiddish theatre troupe in Warsaw; that was the crux of the story (and even that was spread too thin among too many viewpoints, too many spiraling directions. Don't even ask me to remember the genuine Yiddish parable that Rebecca sprinkled between her novel parts, because I'm over-saturated as it is. :P)

I do respect that, with the exception of Beatrice, Phoebe's future mother-in-law, Rebecca painted all of her characters, no matter their backgrounds, with a complex brush. Though Sasha hated the shtetl, her parents, her siblings were well-meaning people. Fraydel's story was heartbreaking, and probably brought on by the narrowness of shtetl life, her lack of options, and I guess that can circle back to Chloe and Phoebe, too, her niece and grand-niece, who, despite being learned, professors, exposed to a big world, find beauty in the simple rituals in which Fraydel and Sorel grew up. Judaism, in the world, which Chloe and Phoebe know, is a choice, not an absolute. Pretty fascinating look into Jewish history. However, I have to say that Fraydel's story, "The Bridegroom," was a little Sueish, or at least the way that the Yiddish theatre troupe fell in love with it as Sasha, who was *supposed* to be trying out for Ophelia, stumbled through this nervous story that no one had heard of before. I mean, come on now. :P

[Isabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sentences that drip and ooze with sensual metaphors; reads like one epic poem. Complex relationships, and intergenerational evolution makes it also an entertaining story. While I wish Sorel/Sasha's development was more clear rather than jumping about, this book is a testament to excellent, and original, obscure works.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It left me looking for more novels by Goldstein.

[Juli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this book, it is told in the same format as a Yiddish folktale and incorporates awesome scenes from Yiddish theatre. It had a great debate about luck vs. mental choice.

[Mike Heyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, lovingly told. Now I understand a little better what it means to be Jewish, and I appreciate personal history a little more.

[Penni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably her best work yet. Highly recommend.

A non-philosophical philosophy of brains and luck written with so much clever humor and poignancy.

[Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I feel filled with mazel myself to have picked this book up (without knowing a single thing about it) in a library sale over a year ago. I only just got to it now, but I’m glad I didn’t wait another second. Reading an unabashedly Jewish book before going back to college, where I often don’t feel as connected to that part of me, was very cathartic. This was a true celebration of not only Jewish storytelling and Yiddish theater, but Jewish history, passion, and diversity.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have very mixed feelings about this book because on one hand, passages touched me so deeply I had tears well up, and on the other, I found parts of it really frustrating. I agree with the reviewer below who found the writing inconsistent; there is something almost undergraduate-ish about the constant insertions of the phrase "mazel." It made moments in the book feel like Goldstein was trying too hard to be clever, rather than conveying something true or organic.

An editor should have caught that. They should also have caught the fact that Sasha cooks shrimp in Phoebe's house, despite Phoebe's observance of kashrut. Likewise, I thought the description of the shtetl as this backwards, monstrous place was quite caricatured. For example, I've done lots of genealogical research in both the areas of Galicia and Lithuania and I've NEVER seen evidence of a 13 year old getting married. A handful of 15 and 16 year olds, sure, but the average age for a woman is usually between 19-24, with many even older. You see those early marriages in something like Gluckel of Hameln's "Memoirs," in the 17th century, not the 19th.

In short, I thought Goldstein's knowledge of yiddishkeit was really lacking here, despite (or perhaps because) her frum childhood, and it leads to glaring inconsistencies with her characters. The secular characters are secular in ways that don't necessarily make sense (how many secular American Jews really don't have Hebrew names, whether or not they can remember what they are?) and the orthodox characters are orthodox in ways that also don't make sense (Phoebe is so frum that she doesn't have mixed dancing at her wedding and yet she continues to use the pagan name "Phoebe" for her daily life?).

And yet, for all that, there were moments in her description of Ashkenaz immediately before the Shoah that truly hit me with their poignancy. So, a solid three stars with occasional five star moments.

[Andy Oram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rebecca Goldstein write novels of philosophy, where a question takes the central role more than any of the characters. The question I see in this novel is not only the role of luck (mazel) in history, which might also be called the role of chance or Fortune, but a more specific question of what Jews must do to survive. This latter question, whose answer seemed clear up until the Enlightenment and then became a major debate in the early 20th-century Warsaw described in Mazel, was suspended by Jews coming to this country for many decades, but seems in the 21st century to become paramount for Jews again. The Bridegroom story that runs through the book, as well as the brief cautionary tale of the Vilna Troupe, thrust forward this these. But the philosophical basis for the novel doesn't get in the way of presenting multi-dimensional, engaging characters, including the mysterious Fraydel, whom it would be nice to have seen more of. But I did feel that the 21st-century parts of the novel were weaker, with even the shared character of Sasha becoming less interesting as she ages. These parts contain less magic and more explanations. The part of the book that entranced me was the archetypal but grittily real descriptions of the shtetl and of Warsaw, both so idealized that it was hundreds of pages before one could even determine the precise time of the story.

[Beatrice Marovich · Rating 2 out of 5]

My M.A. advisor passed this book on to me as I was leaving town-- to move to New Jersey. She thought it would a suitable read, as a portion of the narrative unfolds in suburban Lipton, NJ. I gave the book a mere two stars because - though I can now say that I enjoyed the experience of reading it - I found the writing inconsistent. I had to push myself through it at times. Goldstein is at her best when she evokes the Yiddish folk style. Some of the moments and stretches that lack this import lag a bit.

[Sabeeha Rehman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was hard to read. And although it was pitched to be a three-generational story, it really was about the matriarch. The content and plot was good, but the style was not consistent. Sometimes it had too much detail. It was difficult to stay connected to the characters and the tone shifted. It took me a long time to get through the book.

[Shari (Shira) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a book club book. It was hard to read due to the many, many characters and story events taking place in multiple places during multiple time periods. Then there were those folk tales popping up between chapters. Let's not forget the untranslated Yiddish words. At least once a year, I labor through a hard-to-read book. This is the one for 2018.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 generations of jewish women with some magic or "mazel" thrown in. I was put off by the cover, but the book is pretty and moving. very much a jewish "house of the spirits."

[Lisa Pfeffer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought the book was very boring. It did not hold my attention. There was a lot of jumping around from place to place and character to character.

[Lauretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good read with an underlying philosophical question that takes this book out of the realm of just a good story

[Brent Shenton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful text full of gorgeous explication. Goldstein expertly maneuvers the intricacies of familial relationships and offers keen insight into the interaction between mothers and daughters. I'm reading this for a class for school and my professor tells me over and over again that the assigned readings are designed for us to have "pleasure". Not only does this text provide immense pleasure, it is also fascinating and intellectual. My only note is that I wish the text were slightly longer in order to step more fully into the lives of the stateside family. However, the development of Sasha as a character, and by extension, her offspring, is masterful and gorgeous.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really, really liked her "36 Arguments for the Existence of God," but this book feels more like a sitcom in the beginning and an intro-to-Jewish-culture for the rest. Yes, parts moved me. But she seemed to say everything twice or more: from page 335 to 337, there are FOUR instances of these exact words: "startling announcement that she had begun to keep kosher," "first announced to her mother ... that she was keeping kosher," "announced, very, very softly, that she had recently become kosher," and finally '"I've started to keep kosher," Phoebe had quietly announced."' Yikes! I got the message! It was like that throughout the book, constant repetition. How annoying.

[Maury · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love Rebecca Goldstein’s writing. She’s so clever.

I think this book could have been edited to be solely Sasha’s story. Of course,the point of the book is really that everything comes back around in a few generations, and you wouldn’t get that without the framing story. I don’t buy the argument n theme she’s selling, though. I don’t think she’s shown the role of “mazel”, which is only good luck in this telling. I think what she’s actually showing is the randomness of the world, something that a logician (and his child?) would hate

[Rosie Perkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure if some of the writing was poorly edited or just went over my head… however was very interesting and made me realize most of the books I have read with Jewish main characters have focused on Jewish pain - this book was an interesting perspective on Jewish culture I hadn’t had before. Glad I read it!

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating book! This is the tale of three women (grandmother, daughter, granddaughter) in contemporary New Jersey--but really about the grandmother's life in Poland between the World Wars, and her search for life. It is a tale of discovery, of the old shtetl life versus modernity, and of some very interesting characters all wrapped in Jewish tradition and life. Really nicely done.

[Jf Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

very enjoyable but frustrating. good characterization and fairly good story, but needs editing. cut down on repetitions, help flow, improve clunky stretches. better remembering story than to force way through writing.

[Madisen Cutler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mazel was truly heartwarming. In light of the events going on now, it has been a pleasure to read such a deep story with a rich history worked into it. The theme of the book is beautiful, and I truly loved it!

[Alan LaPayover · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are so many layers to this delightful (and I don't mean that in any condescending way) book -- that I need to sit with it for a while before I can comment in a way that does justice to it. For now, just read it and savor it on whatever level you like. You wont' be disappointed.

[Ploni Almoni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a good writer or a good story teller. Still, manages to be interesting. I would read more by her.

[Mellodie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. It took me a long time to finish this and I can't recommend it.

[Laura Boudreau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed this book, which probed the lives of Jewish women in the shtetl and in the modern world.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting but I found it difficult to get through. I rarely take this long to finish a book!

[Oriyah N · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a fabulously strong start, with beautiful language, a compelling storyline, and an informative historical context. By the middle it started to drag, and towards the end it tanked, and I found myself treading water waiting for the end.