Second dance | Imamother

amother

Sat, Aug 13 2022, 8:07 pm

I missed the second to last chapter.
What happened to Heshys "deal" that his father should become Rav?

What did you think of the ending?
I was kind of disappointed in the ending, just felt some loose ends were not tied up.
. I think it took a lot of guts for the new Rav to ask Reuven to step down, but it was the right thing to do.

amother

Hotpink

Sat, Aug 13 2022, 8:09 pm

It was so lame. Seriously disappointed... This author's serials are usually much better
There was so little plot... I couldn't even keep track of who the characters were.

amother

Daffodil

Sat, Aug 13 2022, 8:29 pm

The serial bothered me. It was an entire cast of middle aged adults acting like teenagers. Really, is this the norm? I get it, humans are messy. But there was a distinct lack of maturity and inability to think as an individual. I wonder if it was intentional.

amother

Calendula

Sat, Aug 13 2022, 8:35 pm

I get mishpachas a week late.

What happened???

Last I saw reuven was giving $ to the yeshiva who heshy was hoping to work at...

What did the rabbi do?

What happened with heshys father?

amother

Stone

Sat, Aug 13 2022, 9:17 pm

I loved the serial up until this week. I felt it ended much too abruptly. But the characters were spot on. Yes, people that age certainly do think and act like that!

amother

Hotpink

Sat, Aug 13 2022, 9:19 pm

amother [ Calendula ] wrote:

I get mishpachas a week late.

What happened???

Last I saw reuven was giving $ to the yeshiva who heshy was hoping to work at...

What did the rabbi do?

What happened with heshys father?

He gave the money, heshy got hired, the new rav started and told Reuven to quit his askanus.
The end.

amother

Sat, Aug 13 2022, 9:29 pm

amother [ Hosta ] wrote:

I think it was wrong of the Rav to do this so early on.

At first I felt hurt for Reuvein, but upon second thought, I realized it was the smartest thing for the Rav to do.

A rav can't be beholden to anyone in the community. When a rav gets hired by a board or by a group of people, whether it is intentional or not, he feels a certain achrayus to them and they feel they they have "protektsia". It's not a healthy situation.

So as good a job as Reuvein was doing, he needed to now step down and let someone else take over. Also, he was letting it take over his life.

amother

Sat, Aug 13 2022, 9:31 pm

amother [ Daffodil ] wrote:

I do think a lot of middle age people are immature. But I didn't think they were all immature. Only maybe Shaindy Brucker.

rachelli66

Sat, Aug 13 2022, 9:42 pm

Found it quite hard to follow. I couldn't remember who was Heshy's Dad, who was the other man. And now it ended out of nowhere. To me it was kind of a Mishmash. I usually enjoy Dov Haller's writing.

amother

Birch

Sun, Aug 14 2022, 1:49 am

I was getting ready to post about this. It was like, um, what? The end? So abrupt.

I found the whole story to be confusing. It began with the wives, then moved to the husbands, then Heshy, nothing linear, no real plot. What happened to Putterman? They just disappeared.

I thought there might have been some backstory as to why it changed in the middle. Remember that happened I think with a Riva Pomerantz serial a few years ago? It got too close to a real story and had to change in the middle and then ended too early? That's what this seemed like. These stories always go past week 45, so it was shorter than usual. Something seemed so off about this story. Usually love Dov Haller.

Odelyah

Sun, Aug 14 2022, 2:27 am

I really enjoyed it actually. After Light Years Away ended Sad

this was the only thing left in Mishpacha that I was looking forward to reading every week. It was a bit abrupt at the end, and good point about Puttermans! (but maybe they did kind of have a resolution when he alluded to his parenting mistakes in a speech and was looking at his wife) but I still found his characters to be so compelling. And I don't usually enjoy fiction that revolves around male characters with a few secondary, superficially drawn female characters, but his male characters have so much depth and humanity that I am blown away and almost don't mind the absence of the women. Maybe the author could write an epilogue where he shows how the rav's promise to Reuvein that the best is yet to come, plays out for him. so we aren't left hanging just kind of feeling bad for him.

PinkFridge

Sun, Aug 14 2022, 6:22 am

Odelyah wrote:

Maybe the author could write an epilogue where he shows how the rav's promise to Reuvein that the best is yet to come, plays out for him. so we aren't left hanging just kind of feeling bad for him.

I think that would be forced.

Odelyah

Sun, Aug 14 2022, 3:58 pm

PinkFridge wrote:

I think that would be forced.

Hmm I agree it definitely could seem forced, but he is such a talented writer that I think he could do it in a way that would feel satisfying and not forced. You know, a single chapter postcript, like at the end of Harry Potter. Where we see later that everyone is doing OK including Reuvein.

amother

Oxfordblue

Sun, Aug 14 2022, 4:33 pm

So actually what bothered me about this serial was Heshy.

I think the author was trying to portray him as someone that people got hooked onto but really wasn't such a great person after all.

And I do think Heshy did have what to offer. Clearly if a bunch of middle aged men are attracted to him and hanging onto every word, and feeling a sense of camerederie he's doing something right.

I don't agree with the rav that he's making people feel like they're missing something. He's making them look deeper at their lives. What really matters?? Why are we so hung up on what everyone thinks?? We have one life and this is our time to make it happen so let's think about how to make this life the best it can be and stop thinking what the neighbors will think.

PinkFridge

Sun, Aug 14 2022, 4:35 pm

amother [ Oxfordblue ] wrote:

I thought it was genius, that he was just agitating the pain, not uplifting them in any way.

amother

Babyblue

Sun, Aug 14 2022, 4:38 pm

rachelli66 wrote:

Found it quite hard to follow. I couldn't remember who was Heshy's Dad, who was the other man. And now it ended out of nowhere. To me it was kind of a Mishmash. I usually enjoy Dov Haller's writing.

Same