Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Goy Crazy


Schorr, Melissa. 2006. Goy Crazy.

Every now and then, a YA romance comes along that sweeps me off my feet. That makes me happy. That makes me giddy almost. Goy Crazy has just joined the list. Rachel Lowenstein is a teen girl (15 or 16) who dreams of finding love. She knows that it's not likely to happen soon...not at her brother's bar mitzvah...not at her local high school...but she can't help wondering what it would be like to have a boyfriend. The book opens at her brother's bar mitzvah. We've got Rachel who has calculated the "average" age of men in the room to be thirty. (That's what happens when you average in the the over forty (or over fifty) crowd with the under fourteen crowd.) What is on her mind most of all is avoiding an awkward dance with the boy next door, Howard Goldstein, with whom she has a love-hate relationship. (Think Much Ado About Nothing.)

First line: "There is no way I'm dancing with Howard Goldstein." p. 1

But then she notices the rather cute busboy, Luke. The two share a few words together. But even though they only shared a few minutes conversation together, she can't help thinking there was a connection between them. A strong connection. She's convinced almost that Luke is her soul mate. Her destiny. The problem? He's not Jewish. He's Catholic. Irish Catholic. She feels that her parents wouldn't understand, couldn't understand this love match. (Not that it's a love match anywhere but in her imagination, but still...) So the story begins.

How does a Jewish girl go about getting a goy's attention? Does Luke appeal to her because he is off limits? Their relationship strictly forbidden? Is her desire more about rebelling against her overprotective parents? Or is Luke really just a wonderful guy she'd be crazy not to fall for?

With over-protective parents, best friends in crises, teen cliques, peer pressure, and the always there and sometimes insulting boy-next-door, GOY CRAZY has it all including Rachel's rewritten version of the Ten Commandments.

http://www.melissaschorr.com/currentnovelx.html

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is more of a summary and it gives too much of the plot away to any reader that is looking at ur blog. change it!

Anonymous said...

this is bad