Goyhood
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15
Ratings1
Average rating2
Funny, poignant, and revelatory while plumbing the emotional depths of the relationship between estranged brothers, Goyhood examines what happens when one becomes unmoored from a comfortable, spiritual existence and must decide whether coincidence is in fact destiny. When Mayer (née Marty) Belkin fled small town Georgia for Brooklyn nearly thirty years ago, he thought he'd left his wasted youth behind. Now he's a Talmud scholar married into one of the greatest rabbinical families in the world - a dirt poor country boy reinvented in the image of God. But his mother's untimely death brings a shocking revelation: Mayer and his ne'er-do-well twin brother David aren't, in fact, Jewish. Traumatized and spiritually bereft, Mayer's only recourse is to convert to Judaism. But the earliest date he can get is a week from now. What are two estranged brothers to do in the interim? So begins the Belkins' Rumspringa through America's Deep South with Mom's ashes in tow, plus two tagalongs: an insightful Instagram influencer named Charlayne Valentine and Popeye, a one-eyed dog. As the crew gets tangled up in a series of increasingly surreal adventures, Mayer grapples with a God who betrayed him and an emotionally withdrawn wife in Brooklyn who has yet to learn her husband is a counterfeit Jew.
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Publication date 5/28/24
CW: An offensive Yiddish word for Black person is used twice in this novel. The character who says the word is not a sympathetic one, and the author goes out of his way to show that the two MCs are not racist. The novel's most important secondary character is a Black woman. But even with all of those modifiers, that word left a lingering bad taste in my mouth.
From the blurb, I was expecting an “estranged twin brothers take a road trip, hijinks and reconciliation follow” plot, and Goyhood does offer several set pieces with humorous elements. The overarching mood however is serious, as Mayer (formerly Martin) wrestles with his commitment to Orthodox Judaism and his long-held belief that studying Jewish texts to the exclusion of everything else is the most exalted way to live. The so-called comic relief comes from the contrast with Meyer's twin David, who has wasted his life on drugs, women, and shady business deals that never paid off. For a good part of the book, the voice of reason is Charlayne, a beautiful Goldman Sachs financial analyst turned Instagram brand ambassador and would-be Appalachian Trail hiker. I guess if you're a white Jewish author writing a token Black character, you might as well make her perfect.
The Orthodox Jewish laws and customs are not always explained well, so I don't think this book will appeal to non-Jewish readers. It barely appealed to me before the offensive language took me out of the story for good.
ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for objective review.
