describes Sue Sil­ver­man’s con­flict­ed feel­ings toward Judaism and her efforts to pass as Chris­t­ian, as refuge from an abu­sive Jew­ish father. The theme exam­ines what hap­pens to a girl who grows up lack­ing a true spir­i­tu­al and reli­gious iden­ti­ty. Sil­ver­man explores this in three sep­a­rate encoun­ters with the overt­ly Chris­t­ian, 1960s pop-music icon Pat Boone: the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of some­one whol­ly oth­er from Sil­ver­man’s father, a kind of tal­is­man reflect­ing her desire to belong to the dom­i­nant cul­ture. Sil­ver­man ties on oth­er iden­ti­ties as well — Baby Boomer, hip­py, kib­butznik, lefty, rebel — seek­ing an authen­tic self. The book is more iron­ic than dark: ​“The Jews are com­ing to vis­it, is how you think of it back then. As if you, your­self, are not a Jew.” At times, Sil­ver­man even envi­sions her­self, sur­re­al­ly, as age­filte fish swim­ming upstream (“with nary a fin”) in an attempt to rec­on­cile with her her­itage. The book simul­ta­ne­ous­ly cel­e­brates the inclu­siv­i­ty of Amer­i­can cul­ture and sub­verts the notion of belonging.