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later in life keeps a supply of shrimp
salad in her freezer, unknown even to
her husband.
"I really wanted to convey what it is
like to be on the inside," Mirvis says,
explaining her use of a plural narrator.
"I chose to have them all tell the story
as a chorus because what happens in
the community is more important to
them as a group than it is to any of
them as individuals. And I wanted to
evoke the strong sense of communal
norms and expectations."
This is the world in which
M irvis, 27, came of age. "I did-
n't just grow up in Memphis. I'm
from Memphis," she says,
emphasizing from.
Her great-great-great grand-
mother came to Memphis from
Poland at the age of 2, soon after
the Civil War. The author gradu-
ated from the Yeshiva of the
South, and shows a visitor to her
Upper West Side apartment pho-
tographs of her class of six, in a
school of 18 girls.
It wasn't until she came to New
York City to study at Barnard that
she had conversations with non-
Jews. It was also then that she first
realized that her Jewish 'community
was more colorful than most.
Mirvis denies that the novel is
autobiographical in the traditional
sense, but admits that it's "emo-
tionally autobiographical. I feel
very much the struggle of wanting
to be within a community and also
the difficulty of living within that
world."
Others have recently written fiction
about Orthodoxy, but writers like
Nathan Englander (with whom Mirvis
shares an agent) and Pearl Abraham
write about a world they mostly left
behind. Mirvis describes herself as a
"feminist, liberal Orthodox Jew," which
she acknowledges can be a "bundle of
contradictions."
She and her husband and their 6-
month old son attend Kehilat Orach
Eliezer on Manhattan's Upper West
Side, which evolved from a minyan
that used to meet in the home of her
rabbi. Although she enjoys being part
of this "warm, friendly and open com-
munity," she sometimes misses
Memphis with its connectedness and
sense of really being rooted. You can't
be from Manhattan in the same way"
To write the novel, Mirvis said she
did no research. It was very natural for
me to write about holidays and rituals.
It's so ingrained. I didn't have to worry
about getting it right."
Creating Batsheva was the largest

challenge; she says she often went
places, ;tying to catch a glimpse of
her." While she felt protective "to some
degree" of the Orthodox community,
she sees no problem in writing critically
about it. "It's important to look honest-
ly at ourselves and our world," she says.
One surprise about Mirvis is that
she has no noticeable Southern accent.
She explains that she lost it in her years
of living in New York, adding that she
still says "y'all" — but it doesn't come
up in conversation.

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fl )1 I' R Y

One of the
elements that make
this a sparkling
debut is Mirvis'
successful use of an
unusual literary
device: She narrates
the book in a
communal voice,
speaking of "we."

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Among the writers she looks to as
important influences are Southerners
like Flannery O'Connor and Williaim
Faulkner. "I didn't grow up with Roth,
Malamud and Mailer," she notes.
Her study of Jewish texts also
informs her work, as many of her
metaphors have biblical roots. The
Book of Ruth is powerfully evoked in
the novel.
Before visiting Detroit's 48th
Annual Jewish Book Fair, Mirvis
planned to head to her hometown to
launch the novel there, and she was a
bit nervous. Over the last few months,
much talk about the book has circulat-
ed on the gossip wires — even though
no one had yet read it. Ifl

Tova Mirvis speaks 10 a.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 9, at the D. Dan
and Betty Kahn Building of the
Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield. Her talk is co-
sponsored by Temple Israel
Sisterhood.

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Detroit Jewish News

10/29
1999

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