A warm, poignant, and honest portrayal of a family in crisis, in love, in denial, and, ultimately, in luck, this novel humorously depicts Britain's Jewish intellectual elite. By all outward appearances, the Rubins are the perfect family: brilliant, successful, and enviably close-knit. The marriage of the eldest son--intended to be a joyous event--creates chaos when the groom jilts his bride and runs off with a married woman. It's a shock to everyone in their small Jewish community, most of all to matriarch Claudia, a ...
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A warm, poignant, and honest portrayal of a family in crisis, in love, in denial, and, ultimately, in luck, this novel humorously depicts Britain's Jewish intellectual elite. By all outward appearances, the Rubins are the perfect family: brilliant, successful, and enviably close-knit. The marriage of the eldest son--intended to be a joyous event--creates chaos when the groom jilts his bride and runs off with a married woman. It's a shock to everyone in their small Jewish community, most of all to matriarch Claudia, a successful rabbi. In the wake of this defiant act, the floodgates to a destructive wave of gossip are opened, and the secrets that the Rubins have been keeping from one another begin to spill forth. All family members ultimately must come to terms with their own inner desires and identities in this clever novel. "Una representacion simpatica, conmovedora y sincera de una familia en crisis, enamorada, en negacion y, finalmente, afortunada, esta novela describe con humor a la elite intelectual judia de Gran Bretana. Por lo visto, los miembros de la familia Rubin son perfectos: inteligentes, prosperos y unidos de manera envidiable. El casamiento del hijo mayor--el cual debiera ser un acontecimiento feliz--crea caos cuando el novio deja plantada a su novia para irse con una mujer casada. Todos se escandalizan en la pequena comunidad judia, sobretodo la matriarca Claudia, una rabina exitosa. Tras este acto de rebeldia, se abren las puertas a una oleada destructiva de chismes, y los secretos que los Rubin se han ocultado comienzan a revelarse. Todos los miembros de la familia tendran que aceptar la realidad de sus deseos intimos y sus identidades en esta novela ingeniosa."
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