The Rabbi - by Noah Gordon (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The New York Times-bestselling novel that follows the life and career of a rabbi as he journeys through America: "A rewarding reading experience." --Los Angeles Times

Michael Kind is raised in the Jewish cauldron of 1920s New York, familiar with the stresses and materialism of metropolitan life. Turning to the ancient set of ethics of his Orthodox grandfather, with a modern twist, he becomes a Reform rabbi. As insecure and sexually needy as any other young male, he serves as a circuit-rider rabbi in the Ozarks, and then as a temple rabbi in the racially ugly South, in a San Francisco suburb, in a Pennsylvania college town, and finally, in a New England community west of Boston. Along the way he falls deeply in love with and marries the daughter of a Congregational minister; she converts to Judaism and they have two complex, interesting children. Noah Gordon's picture of a brilliant and talented religious counselor--who at times is as bereft and uncertain as any of his congregants--is a deeply moving and very satisfying novel.

Review Quotes

"Noah Gordon fills out his story with the color, the changing moods, the confrontations, setbacks, advances, tears, laughter, hurts and healing that compose all lives, Jewish or gentile, that transform life itself into an excitement and a challenge . . . A chronicle rich with meaningful experiences." --The New York Times

"This big, ambitious novel comes as close to matters of faith and life as any book that has appeared . . . Excellent." --New York Post

"A story that moves and has heart, with characters that are so well drawn you hate to leave them at the book's end." --The Columbus Dispatch

"The Rabbi is no more a 'Jewish novel' than Going My Way was 'a Catholic movie.' Its appeal is universal." --National Observer

"Few writers since Sinclair Lewis have sprawled with such magnificent ease over so large a part of the contemporary scene." --Saturday Review

About the Author

Noah Gordon's international bestsellers have sold millions of copies and have won a number of awards, among them, in America, the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for historical fiction. He lives outside of Boston with his wife, Lorraine Gordon.