 "Mixed feelings about this" | 2008-07-17 |
| - Reviewed By markofcain |
(3.5 stars)
I found this book to be genuinely captivating, insightful, intelligent, and nicely-written. Ms. Winner is obviously extremely intelligent and well-read, and isn't a shabby writer at all. She's also very honest and emotional about her life and religious experiences, even when it could be argued that some of these details aren't relevant (for example, who really needs to know she wears fishnets and doesn't shave her legs?). My issues with the book lie elsewhere.
As she goes through the calendar year (mostly) according to Christian holidays and seasons in her newfound Episcopal Church, Ms. Winner weaves a nonlinear narrative of her religious upbringing (she was raised in a Southern Reform shul and Jewish by patrilineal descent), her growing level of observance as she became a young woman, her conversion to Orthodox Judaism to (as she saw it) make her Jewish identity legit in the eyes of everyone, her days as an undergrad at Columbia, the pull she felt towards Christianity only a couple of years after becoming officially Orthodox, her transition to the Episcopal faith while in Cambridge, and how she tries to make peace with her religious past and present without disrespecting either one. This story in itself could have been so much better had she chosen to write more about her second conversion. While there was ample material on her Jewish upbringing, her pull towards Orthodoxy, her first conversion, and the Orthodox life she lived in her late teens and early twenties, I was left wondering why exactly she decided to convert to Christianity, and why she chose Anglicanism/Episcopalianism in particular. Having a strange dream about mermaids and a Jesus who looks like Daniel Day-Lewis, and feeling drawn to the Christian art in a local museum, seem rather silly and shallow reasons for altering one's religious life so radically. Her attachment to her latest religion seems very sincere, but I wanted to know more about what exactly led her to it, why she decided to cross the point of no return.
Ms. Winner's reasons for leaving Judaism, the faith she had known her entire life, also seem rather shallow, unless there were some much deeper reasons she chose not to delve into. She says she felt like she'd never fully belong because she was a convert, but she also writes about all of the wonderful people who took her into their homes, hearts, and lives, holding her as surrogate family. Surely they should have mattered more to her than some snobby girls on campus and some guys who didn't want to date her because half of her family wasn't Jewish! She also says that the status of women in Orthodoxy grew to really bother her, so instead of deciding to leave for a more progressive denomination or to find a liberal Modern Orthodox shul which has such things as women-led prayer groups, she packs up and leaves the religion entirely? I really didn't like the prevailing attitude that set Orthodoxy up as the only valid denomination. Those of us who choose not to be Orthodox find such attitudes extremely offensive and hurtful. Additionally, Ms. Winner was extremely young when she converted. Had she stayed and engaged her doubts and crisis of faith, she might have emerged stronger when she was a little older. Instead she chose not to tell anyone she was having second thoughts after only a couple of years, people who might have been able to help her to regain her faith and find new energy (it's normal for the convert's zeal to wear off, but it doesn't mean it's time to quit the religion). It's kind of hypocritical how she writes about taking such great pains to avoid anyone from her former life, then writes an entire book talking about how she jumped ship.
It's clear, from her writing, that she misses a lot about her Orthodox life, like her friends, the food, the holidays (she even has one of those "Christian seders" with some friends of hers, and has a Pentecost equivalent of a laila tikkun, the all-night studying marathon on Shavuot), the community, the books, and the prayers. One later chapter talks about how she had to rebuild her Jewish library some years after she gave almost all of her Jewish books away when she left the fold. I can't help but feel that had she been older than just in her early twenties, she might have had more maturity and foresight to think through all of the consequences of her actions. Like many others, I also question why she chose to write this book while still a young woman. For all anyone knows, she might eventually grow tired of Christianity too and go back to Judaism or convert to a third religion someday. Ultimately, a lot of her actions just struck me as those of someone who's very young, naïve, impulsive, and spiritually promiscuous, bopping from one religion to another without taking much time in between to fix what's wrong in her current spiritual life before doing something so drastic. |
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 "Relevant... Honest... Transparent and Real - a Relatable Reflection of one Woman's Faith Journey" | 2007-08-26 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3VNJT0OFY4LWS |
This book was a gift from a dear friend who said - "her writing style reminds me of yours" (which is actually probably true)- but even casting that aside - there was so much about this woman's journey of discovering her faith... and wrestling with all of that (how to walk it out... how to defend it to her friends, her family - even herself in the face of whatever it was that life threw at her... the big & small stuff) - that I could really identify with, and think that most people - and women could as well.
In fact, it was so much like looking in a mirror at some points that it was at times a bit unnerving... or at least very challenging.
I found myself at the end of it kind of/rather torn... smiling and almost grimacing all at once because of the way it ends. While I understand that the author had to end the book/story the way she did, I confess that I am slightly at odds with my reaction to it at the same time. (I waffle between "brilliant" and that slightly unsettled feeling you have when everything isn't all wrapped up at the end into neat Hollywood endings w/pretty bows and packaging).
Which I suppose is what made it all the more real, and true and resonant (sp?) and why, I suppose it was all the more perfectly suited for me.
I highly recommend this book. It's definitely the kind of thing you can pick up & put down... or read all at once, but I recommend savoring it. (Like really good dark chocolate - the kind you would LOVE to eat all at once - and are even tempted too... it's SO much better if you let it soak in over time). |
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 "A very easy book to relate to." | 2005-01-03 |
| - Reviewed By hollyhess21 |
| This book is a quick read and well as an interesting read. I read this book for a church book discussion group and was very glad we chose it. I felt that even though it's about her struggle with Judaism and converting to Christianity, it is so very applicable to me as a Christian who did not convert from anything. It reminds me of the basics of being a Christian and the struggles that we all face. The reason not for 5 stars is that even though there is a great deal of information from the author about the 2 religions, it was not a challenging book to read - but that's just my preference. |
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| "Page Turner" | 2004-06-24 |
| - Reviewed By bsweil63 |
| It is not often a person can say a religious book is a edge of chair page turner; BUT, Lauren's book was just that. I read it in three evenings, and quickley ordered her book Mudhouse Sabbath, and can't wait to read it. Lauren's religious "travel" from reformed Judaism to orthodox Judaism to Episcopalism was both insightful and thought provoking. I highly recommend this book if you are searching spiritally, or want to learn basic tenants of Judaism and christianity from a person who lived both. |
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| "A Dizzying Journey" | 2004-05-20 |
| - Reviewed By jake_reidt |
| You might have a friend who is pretty bright, likes to talk about their struggles, desperately tries to defy any and all 'categorizations', and comes across as passionate but erratic. Chances are this friend is great at dinner parties, but you don't exactly give them the keys to your house and ask them to water your plants while you're on vacation. Maybe this is because you fear that they would suddenly, inexplicably, or tirelessly pursue a 'spontaneous' life, a life that maybe didn't include sustaining your African violets. If you don't have that friend, I encourage you to read this book. After which, Lauren Winner can be that friend. The book is not a bad read. It's a faithful mimicry of Anne Lamott - even when it comes to sentence construction. You'll have lots of long, rambling, free-flowing sentences (with parenthetical expressions) that will be showing you the many divergent paths that her intricate mind is capable of exploring...and you'll see that she's young, hip, and flippant because there will be the necessary punctual follow up fragment. Like this. Overall, I found her a story a little suspect, in part due to the author's note that let's us know certain "details - names, professions, chronology, and so forth" were changed. Also in part due to the freshness of the material; she's so stuck in the churn that I don't think she's fully reflected on her journey. The dust-jacket comparisons to C.S. Lewis (because he wrote a spiritual autobiography?! What about St. Augustine while we're at it?) made me want to puke. |
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| "Girl Meets God: On the Path to a Spiritual Life" | 2004-04-19 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| I have spent my whole life since middle school, and actually even before that, seeking God. In this collection of biographical and theological musings, structured around Jewish festivals and the seasons of the Christian liturgical year, Winner considers her path from Reform Jew to Orthodoxy to self-described evangelical Episcopalian. Frank, often funny, sometimes sexy, and disarmingly honest, her story is far from the "how I found Jesus" tract one might expect. Sophisticated, well-educated with degrees from Columbia and Cambridge, and the child of a secular Jewish father and a lapsed Baptist mother, Winner at age twenty-something is very much a modern, worldly wise young woman. Her spiritual self-examination could almost be a caricature of the self-absorption sometimes considered characteristic of GenX'ers. Her writing what amounts to an autobiography while still in her twenties might be considered premature. How, the reader wonders, does one know that she will not go off to become a Buddhist next year, but she even addresses this question. The book's appeal lies in Winner's sincerity and her willingness to share her struggle to be honest and faithful to God. Many young seekers fumbling their way to faith will appreciate the example of someone who is not a stereotypical, good-girl Sunday schooler but whose belief is heartfelt and hard-won. Her well-written, absorbing account provides an important validation for those readers who may not be ready for Kathleen Norris or Anne Lamott, but who share their bumpy paths to spirituality |
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| "Delightful Spiritual Memoir!" | 2004-01-05 |
| - Reviewed By psalmster200 |
| Lauren Winner, a graduate student in her late twenties, comes from a mixed religious background. The book follows her on a spiritual roller-coaster ride through two major conversions. First, although she always considered herself Jewish, she must go through a long and difficult process to "convert" to Orthodox Judaism. And yet, even as she is working this out, she is being drawn to Jesus, and her second conversion, ending up as an Anglican Christian. And then she must struggle to sort out what she has gained and lost, rebuild relationships, and integrate the two streams of her heritage. As the book ends, she has not finished this hard work by any means, but she has begun going back to her Jewish roots to understand her Christian life more deeply. Author Lauren Winner is an intelligent, witty, intellectual young woman, someone you would like to spend hours with, just chatting, talking about spiritual things, sharing favorite books--yes, I loved the Mitford books, too. She writes in a lucid, conversational style, with a sparkling sense of humor. By the end of the book I felt I knew her well. The book is not perfect. It leaves far too much unexplained, and, as other reviewers have noted, she is perhaps a little early in the process to be writing this memoir. Still, I enjoyed it immensely. As someone who has walked a similar path, I felt privileged to share in hers. I recommend this book highly! Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber. |
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| "Finding the Spiritual Life" | 2003-05-02 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
Lauren Winner is the girl who meets God. She like the rest of us is wanting something to believe in. Winner expresses in a years time about her path to a spiritual life that shapes her Christian faith. She is the daughter of a Reform Jewish father and a Southern Baptist mother. She sees herself as an Orthodox Jew. The personal pilgrimage into her daily life as she observes the Sabbath rituals and studies Jewish laws, but only to find she is drawn closer to Christianity. So making this courageous step she converts. From here she reinvents another religious life in her small N.C. town. What she does is embraces the new but holds onto the old at the same time being spiritually whole. At this point this an account of the life one young woman's seeking the truth. Wouldn't it have been easier for her to pray to God to help her grow, and know this faith is found in His Son, Jesus Christ. Where there is no religion but finding the Cross.
According to Lauren her world she shapes by her Jewish experiences. She applies Judaism to the teaching of the New Testament and struggles to fit her Orthodox friends into her new life. She tells of her honest confession of faith. Not to compare her with Anne Lamott's bumpy road to faith and her much more indepth into the spiritual road. This journey of twists and turns is a perfect guide for those seeking spirituality in today's complicated world. As I read about her changes through disciplines of prayer and beauty of thoughts. She has the passion of Stephen Dubner. She takes in the character of C. S. Lewis, raised on Flannery O'Connor and Michael Stipe. It give you a feeling living in the ancient Holy time yet retaining modern living. Like Elijah living in a small Southern-American town without being changed by the things around her. Winner's journey between Judiaism and Christianity is humorous and poignant. She reflects much on life of those around her and how they inspire her by the town's people, her family & friends, books and her deeper relationship with God.
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 "Doesn't do it for me" | 2003-02-25 |
| - Reviewed By sophia_divina |
| In "Girl Meets God," Lauren Winner takes the reader through her two conversions: first to Orthodox Judaism, then to Christianity. Although some of her ideas and stories on her faith journey are interesting, her stories are overloaded and overwrought, and she tries too hard and is too self-consciously witty for this to be a good read. (Who cares if she wears fishnet stockings?) I felt as if she needed to document everything that had to do with her faith life, whether of interest to the reader or not, which made the book "cluttered", as least for me. Her discomfort with the two labels of "Christian" and "liberal" shines through, as does her evident pain of the exile she now feels from her Orthodox community. I really wanted to hear more about why she became a Christian, what drew her to Christianity, why she felt the need to leave Judaism - was she feeling these doubts all along? If so, why not engage them *before* converting to Judaism? Part of me wonders if any faith community will ever be enough for Ms. Winner, especially since the ending was somewhat open. I think she has some interesting ideas and thoughts, but wished she'd waited to write this book until she'd matured a little more. |
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| "Who's Afraid of a Spiritual Book?" | 2003-01-24 |
| - Reviewed By evoice |
Although BOOKS ABOUT GOD and SPIRITUAL GUIDES scare and sometimes intimidate me,I am always interested in reading open, honest explorations of religion and spirituality. My favorite--seems like everyone's favorite--is Anne Lamott's Travelling Mercies. On the basis of one book I dare not compare Lauren Winner to Lamott, whom I adore in every genre, but Winner is certainly a strong competitor. I love the personal way she approaches the reader, almost like reading a diary, but more fluid.
"Sometimes, often, prayer feels that way to me, impersonal and unfeeling and not something I've chosen to do.I wish it felt inspired and on fire and like a real, love-conversation all the time, or even just more of the time. But what I am learning...it is a great gift when God gives me a stirring, a feeling, a something-at-all in prayer. But work is being done whether I feel it or not."I also appreciate the way she approaches the subject matter with grace and humor, never strident, even when making her individual beliefs clear. A wonderful book and a writer to watch. |
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