When I saw the words “A dazzling portrait of a family in crisis”” emblazoned on the cover of this book, I could not keep my hand from stretching out and grabbing it off the shelf. If there’s one thing I always love in a book, it’s a dazzling portrait of a family in crisis. And this is quite some family. And quite some crisis. Well, crises.
Claudia Rubin is a glamorous, sexy celebrity wife, mother and rabbi, with her very own synagogue in a fashionable part of London. The book starts on the proudest of days: her never-put-a-foot-wrong son Leo is about to be married, and all eyes are on Claudia because that’s the way she likes it. Until Leo jilts his bride at the altar in favour of another rabbi’s wife. oy, does that throw a spanner in the works! Sensible sister Frances tries to sort things out the way she always has done and is still expected to.
The trouble is, sensible sister Frances is having a crisis of her own. Her husband is the world’s biggest drip, she’s struggling to be a good stepmother to his two daughters and worse, she’s not bonding happily with her own baby son. Add to this maelstrom a younger sister who won’t leave home and spends most of her time crying, a drug-addled younger brother who similarly won’t cut the apron-strings and a seemingly devoted husband who’s keeping a secret, and this becomes one seriously out-of-whack household.
If you’ve ever had the feeling that your family is the only one that’s completely crazy then (a) you should rest assured that all families are crazy and (b) you should read this book because the Rubins will make you feel as sane as you could possibly be. Claudia Rubin may be a glamorous, sexy celebrity wife, mother and rabbi at the beginning, but at the end by which time you will almost certainly be bawling your head off she’s just an everyday woman like you or I or anyone else
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
