Book notes: The Ladies’ Auxiliary
The Ladies’ Auxiliary
Tova Mirvis
I simultaneously loved and hated this book through a lot of it, and here is why. AS a person preparing to convert to Judaism, I strongly identified with the protagonist, her enthusiasm for Judaism, her outsiderhood and her search for acceptance within a close-knit Jewish community. I strongly identified with this “convert out-Jews the Jews” phenomenon – the difference between people who follow conventions because it’s “what they’ve always done” and people who choose to follow them because they find them personally beautiful and meaningful.
With this in mind, I found the story irresistable – I literally fell asleep reading it night after night because I just wanted to finish one more chapter. And yet I felt a strong aversion to the collective narrator (the story is told in first person plural, a “we” ostensibly representing the existing Ladies’ Auxiliary crowd) and the way conclusions were jumped to about the protagonist’s motivations, intentions, and past.
It was incredibly well written, conveying the way close communities like the featured Orthodox Jewish enclave of Memphis probably do function almost as a creature with a personality of its own, separate from the personalities of its members. I really appreciated the personification of the organization. I really appreciated the examination of what faith really is, about the value of going through the motions and committment to tradition and form without thought of the meanings behind it.
I think that this is a story with applications outside Judaism – that someone from almost any background could take away a lesson from it about what it means to be an outsider, or what it means to greet an outsider from the inside of any established group. What is the place of having one’s values challenged, and what does any individual’s response to the challenge indicate about who they are and the nature of their faith?
