Chil­dren’s

The Art of Being Rebekkah

Karo­line Barrett
  • Review
By – May 15, 2014

Rebekkah is mar­ried to a seem­ing­ly lov­ing man who says he only wants to take care of her. The real love of Rebekkah’s life was par­a­lyzed in a car acci­dent that Rebekkah wit­nessed as a pas­sen­ger in that car. She has kept her engage­ment ring and reg­u­lar­ly secret­ly vis­its her ex-fiance’s fam­i­ly. Rebekkah is slow­ly pur­su­ing her art career but feels hin­dered by her hus­band. His increas­ing­ly suf­fo­cat­ing atten­tive­ness and reli­gious demands grate on her. Mean­while the art gallery that rep­re­sents Rebekkah suf­fers a break-in and the police are called in to solve the crime. Detec­tive Rossi is attrac­tive but brash as he deals with the art theft. There is an instant chem­istry between Rebekkah and Rossi and a rela­tion­ship begins as the case is inves­ti­gat­ed. Rebekkah is torn between her strong Jew­ish iden­ti­ty and a bud­ding love for this Catholic detec­tive. As Rebekkah learns more about her back­ground and begins to stand up for her­self she must con­front some major life deci­sions. It is easy to iden­ti­fy with Rebekkah’s rehash­ing of the pros and cons of her issues. The sto­ry takes place in Brooklyn’s Park Slope and in Man­hat­tan and the author describes these venues vivid­ly. This is a fast, col­or­ful read, also suit­able for young adults.

Relat­ed Content:

Miri­am Brad­man Abra­hams, mom, grand­mom, avid read­er, some­time writer, born in Havana, raised in Brook­lyn, resid­ing in Long Beach on Long Island. Long­time for­mer One Region One Book chair and JBC liai­son for Nas­sau Hadas­sah, cur­rent­ly pre­sent­ing Inci­dent at San Miguel with author AJ Sidran­sky who wrote the his­tor­i­cal fic­tion based on her Cuban Jew­ish refugee family’s expe­ri­ences dur­ing the rev­o­lu­tion. Flu­ent in Span­ish and Hebrew, cer­ti­fied hatha yoga instructor.

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