Sotah by Naomi Ragan

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Raisin

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 12:32 pm

She does have positive chareidi characters. (dinas parents and husband are nice people) But a happy ending is when the characters become M.O.

I thought the saturday wife was very funny.

purpleink

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 12:42 pm

I was actually impressed by the ending- not so anti-charedi. The woman remained Orthodox but created her own path, leaving behind the negativity in the frum world (as much as she could, of course).

It's not for people who don't know much about Orthodoxy but as a person aware of certain probs in the charedi world, it was an interesting read. (Interesting since it was not realistic for a few reasons.)

Does she want to learn more about frum Jews or does she just want a good read?

sequoia

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 12:46 pm

She has totally moved away from that theme! The Saturday Wife, Chains Around the Grass, The Covenant, The Tenth Song -- NONE of these novels are about MO/chareidi or about anyone becoming MO!

Why are you all judging her based on her first three books??? She's written a ton since then and really improved as a writer. Those three books (Sotah, Jephte's Daughter, Sacrifice of Tamar) don't even make up half her oeuvre!

Isramom8

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 2:26 pm

shlomitsmum wrote:

I read it years ago, it was an ok written book but very biased.

But I won't read her stuff again after she got fined for plagerism last year.

I feel very guilty that I noticed the plagiarism as soon as the book it is in came out (about a million years ago), and I just raised my eyebrows and laughed it off in the privacy of my own home.

shlomitsmum

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 2:40 pm

Isramom8 wrote:

shlomitsmum wrote:

I read it years ago, it was an ok written book but very biased.

But I won't read her stuff again after she got fined for plagerism last year.

I feel very guilty that I noticed the plagiarism as soon as the book it is in came out (about a million years ago), and I just raised my eyebrows and laughed it off in the privacy of my own home.

I was shocked because for someone with her talent it was such a dumb thing to do. I used to be part of a jewish women book club and her works were a favorite of the leader who was very upset about the case.

I wanted to live in tzfat like her character and do Art for a living ....It was a cool ending Very Happy

Isramom8

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 3:13 pm

My impression is that when people plagiarize, they assume that not the same people will be reading/watching both books, movies, etc. This is not true of me!

1. I noticed this case immediately, having read both books, which were geared to different types of frum Jews.

2. I noticed plagiarism in a frum novel from a secular movie which was one of the few I happened to have seen.

3. I noticed plagiarism in a new secular book from an old TV movie. It was from when I was a teen. But the scenes came back to me immediately.

4. My own original lyrics to a song from when I was in high school were used in a frum novel! To be fair, the character in the novel says that she "stole the words from that famous song about friendship". And I laughed it off.

5. Jodi Picoult plagiarizes HERSELF all the time. That's just funny!

robynm

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 3:18 pm

How does Jodi Picolt plagiarize herself?

Isramom8

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 3:20 pm

She has characters in new books use lines from her older books. It's adorable.

robynm

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 3:29 pm

Wow. Too bad I can never remember much about a book after putting it down.

Isramom8

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 3:30 pm

robynm wrote:

Wow. Too bad I can never remember much about a book after putting it down.

Authors count on that. Wink

robynm

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 3:34 pm

Isramom8 wrote:

robynm wrote:

Wow. Too bad I can never remember much about a book after putting it down.

Authors count on that. Wink

I would think they would want their book to be memorable.

But yeah, I have read books multiple times and not realized until the end that I'd already read them.

Raisin

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 4:12 pm

I totally noticed the plagirism in Naomis books. I just thought it was really strange but did not dream it was on purpose. It wasn't a plot iirc - it was a scene, copied almost word for word. Very odd. Does she think no chariedi women read her books?

Isramom8

Thu, Apr 11 2013, 4:22 pm

Well, does she have Chareidi characters in her books who read her books and (gasp!) still want to remain Chareidi? Wink

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