Ask for a Convertible

May 12, 2008
“Home isn't just about place,” Efrat Greenberg scolds her daughter, Osnat, in “Ascent,” the last of the 13 linked stories in Brown's debut collection spanning approximately 20 years. But the struggles and longings of these two Tel Aviv–born women who move to Ann Arbor, Mich., when Osnat is in junior high school echo in all of Brown's characters. Efrat is woefully homesick: she moved for her American husband, Marvin, who accepted a teaching job after 13 years in Israel. Osnat seeks kinship from classmate and fellow immigrant Sanjay. The quest for connection is larger than the Greenbergs: in “Running,” family friend Harriet cements a friendship with an unpopular girl when the two teens concoct—after studying Anne Frank—an escape plan in case Nazis take over America. And then there's Noam, a battle-scarred Israeli soldier who arrives in New York with big dreams, but ends up slinging hummus in a Chicago suburb. He and Osnat wind up together on the night of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. At once openhearted and close-minded, Brown's characters often offend one another when they collide, and their stories capture the awkwardness of both coming to America and coming-of-age.

June 1, 2008
Adult/High School-This linked collection of short stories reads like a novel. Osnat Greenberg, 13 when readers first meet her, spends the next 15 years struggling with her identity. A child of an American father and an Israeli mother, she moves with her family from Tel Aviv to Michigan just as she begins middle school. This change in location results in more than just a struggle to assimilate into a new culture. Osnat finds herself not only isolated from her classmates and peers, but also estranged from her quarrelsome parents. As an adult, she moves to her family's apartment in Tel Aviv with the hope that returning to Israel will give her the social connections she has not been able to find in America. However, her experiences reveal that location and love are connectedjust not in any of the ways she originally thought. Both funny and poignant, these stories communicate a subtle wisdom about what is important in life. Teens will be drawn in by Osnat's quirky adolescent obstacles and her heartrending journey to define herself both outside of and within her family. Recommend this title to readers who enjoyed Curtis Sittenfeld's "The Man of My Dreams" (Random, 2006)."Lynn Rashid, Marriots Ridge High School, Marriotsville, MD"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2008
Thirteen-year-old Osnat Greenberg has come to Michigan from Israel with her American father and Israeli mother and, like her parents, has trouble fitting in. Burdened with a regrettable first name in English, she battles her way through middle school as her mother complains bitterly about everything in Americathe food, the language that she hasn't mastered, and the utter strangeness of life as she sees it. Osnat's professor father tries vainly to quell the household discord, though they all slowly adapt. Osnat must adapt again when she returns to Israel much later. This fiction debut of linked stories deftly portrays characters and situations that involve struggling with borders: coming of age, romantic entanglements, family feuds and frustrations, religion, secularism, and defining home. As do two recent story collectionsEllen Litman's "The Last Chicken in America", which traces a Russian family's struggles in America, and Margot Singer's portrayal of an Israeli family in "The Pale of Settlement"Brown's book effectively portrays emigration issues; the yearning for independence and trying to sustain an identity pulsate throughout the collection. Keen on the Jewish scene in Israel and America, Brown is a writer to savor. Recommended for most collections.Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, MD

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.