Four mothers Book

This doesn't really merit a summary, but here it is - five generations of women suffer a curse which results in their being abandoned by their husbands around the time they deliver their first child. From here, you can probably write the book yourself - typical chick lit saga of mothers and daughters, each with her own story. Apparently, Israel is not immune to the tired marketing ploy of, "Middle aged women, I just know you'll love to read me in your book clubs and will uncritically accept all my amateurish writing flaws because I'm an empowerment story of a Sisterhood of Strong Women who Don't Need Men."

The Red Tent, The Secret Life of Bees, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Women of the Silk, and countless other books all have trademarks of this one:

1. Men who are at best, ineffectual and superfluous, at worst, boorish and abusive.
2. Women who find that all their needs, sometimes even sexual ones, can be better met by other women.
3. CLICHES.
4. More clichés.
5. One-dimensional characters.
6. Predictable plot twists, at least those that make sense.
7. Pathetic attempts at poetic writing which often result in bizarre oxymorons.
8. Frequent references to bodily fluids and/or smells.
9. An exotic setting in an apparent attempt to compensate for all of the above.

Am I betraying the sisterhood of women when I say that I actually, uh, like men? That I've found that they can be strong (in a good way), intelligent, and interesting? That women can be jerks too? That I like reading about characters, both male and female, who are three-dimensional and alive with strengths and weaknesses?

I've also decided I don't like magic realism. I mean, I really don't like it. I find it hard enough to understand the world I live in without throwing in a whole bunch of new rules of nature which appear and disappear unpredictably to suit the author's fancy.

The icing on the cake for me, of course, is this bizarre version of Judaism. Has Shifra Horn ever been to a mikvah? Has she ever met a religious person?

Old Joke: What's the closest religion you'll find to Orthodox Judaism?
New Response: Orthodox Jews as depicted in literature.

On second thought, maybe not. Either way, let me just say that Naomi Ragen's endorsing this book comes as no surprise.

And one final gripe - the book really describes the stories of five mothers, not four, but I guess four was more poetically symbolic. That about says it all, doesn't it?

Apparently, this book won lots of Israeli literary prizes. Score one more for the quality of Israeli literature.