Sima's Undergarments for Women

September 29, 2008
In Brooklyn's Borough Park, Sima Goldner runs a bra shop from her basement while tolerating her oafish husband, Lev, who lords over the upstairs. But when young and beautiful Israeli expatriate Timna takes the gig as the shop's seamstress, Sima confronts some long-hidden feelings, fears and impulses, and her formerly small life opens up. From the very first page, this is an assured narrative with an even surer voice; readers will know that they are in the hands of a real storyteller as Sima and Timna forge a partnership. Neighborhood subplots bubble along nicely as Stanger-Ross charts Sima's awakening and shows how Timna's arrival and continued presence affect Sima. The bra shop works wonderfully as a stage and forum for the many ladies who tromp through it. This ends up being much more than a novel of female bonding—it's a subtly powerful treatise on friendship, trust and love, written with plenty of verve.

November 1, 2008
A mild first novel about an unhappy older woman whose life brightens when she hires a new assistant for her lingerie shop in an orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Sima 's marriage to Lev, a retired teacher, has been a long slog of mutual loneliness ever since Sima realized she could not have children. Although she can be charming with her female customers, whose daily life Stanger-Ross captures with a lively eye for detail, Sima has become a bitter, shrewish wife to passive Lev, whose every tic annoys her. But from the moment Timna, a beautiful Israeli girl staying with family in Brooklyn, wonders into the lingerie shop Sima runs in the basement of her Boro Park house, Sima 's life begins to change. Timna not only brings youthful energy to the shop and willingly chats with Lev, she also willingly shares her joys and worries with Sima. Waiting for her boyfriend to finish his compulsory military service, she has met some fast-lane Israelis in New York. She seems the daughter Sima always dreamed of having: beautiful, energetic, loving. Fascinated by Timna 's adventures and increasingly dependent on her, almost obsessed, Sima remembers her unsatisfactory relationship with her own mother and the early years of her marriage, when she and Lev shared moments of genuine happiness before she learned the secret she has held back from him all these years: her infertility stems from scars left by a cured venereal disease she contracted during a brief adolescent fling. Sima 's coldness toward Lev stems from her guilt. When she finally tells him the truth, he says it wasn 't worth ruining their marriage. Meanwhile, Sima is worried about Timna, whom she suspects, based on circumstantial evidence, is pregnant. Following Timna into Manhattan, Sima has a near romantic encounter of her own. Eventually Timna reunites with her boyfriend and goes on with her life, while Sima and Lev resuscitate their moribund relationship.

Filled with gentle uplift, but sorry-for-herself Sima is a difficult heroine to like.

(COPYRIGHT (2008) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 15, 2008
Sima Goldberg, owner of a bra shop in Brooklyn, NY, is the kind of woman whom other women trust. Sima is privy to the thoughts and desires of her clientele as she custom-fits each one with undergarments that lift, correct, and enhance their female figures]all at discount prices, of course. But while her patrons bare their souls to Sima, she manages to keep the biggest secret to herself, one that has been a burden for over 46 years. It is only when Sima hires Timna, a young Israeli girl, to be her assistant that her secret is exposed. Timna is a free spirit who moves through Sima's life offering her the allure of love and adventure, yet when Timna flees, she leaves behind a wake of destruction. Debut novelist Stanger-Ross writes about the intimacy among women whose lives are defined by their Orthodox Jewish community. She deftly reveals just enough information about her characters to excite the reader's curiosity without making the story line predictable. In the end, this is a tale about appreciating one's life, and isn't that what life is about? Recommended only for libraries with mid-size to large Jewish fiction collections.Marika Zemke, Commerce Twp. Community Lib., MI

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2008
Nestled in a tight-knit Brooklyn community, 65-year-old Sima Goldners discount lingerie shop is a prime business in her orthodox Jewish neighborhood, and, more importantly, it is also a haven for the many women who frequent her small basement store. Discontented with her marriage toa bumbling, retired schoolteacher named Lev, Sima pours herselfinto her business and her varied customers, many of whom use the privacy of her shop as a forum to ruminate about their relationships, families, and lives. Simas everyday routine is indelibly changed with the arrival of the young, vibrant Timna, an attractive Israeli expatriate who applies to work as a seamstress. As the relationship between Sima and Timna evolves, Sima finds herself confronting the realities of her infertility and the complexities of her past, long shrouded in shame and adolescent regret. Backdropped by the shops colorful patrons, Stanger-Ross engaging novel follows Sima as she struggles to find balance in navigating her newfound relationship with Timna while exploring the intense depths of personal reconciliation and redemption.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)