"Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers"

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miriam

Mon, Nov 28 2005, 9:40 pm

I finished reading Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers: An Intimate Journey Among Hasidic Girls by Stephanie Wellen Levine.

This is probably one of the first books I have fully read in a long time. When I first started it, the characters she describes made me very sad. I felt like no matter how much I put into my children, they are going to go off the derech, CHAS V'SHALOM!!! But then she talks about frum girls and how their core is so pure and beautiful. I appreciated her book. I just wish she hadn't written about the few weird girls (and boys).

At the end of the book she talk about how to the dismay of all her new CH friends, she is not going to become religious. She couldn't wait to get back to her jeans and treif food. I thought she was a perfect person to be mikareived.

In the end, I felt good about the book and except for the beginning, I actually thought it gave Lubavitch a good name.

Crayon210

Mon, Nov 28 2005, 10:16 pm

I think the author broke it down way too simply: Chassidish, Normal, Rebellious. I don't think that most sociologists involved in the Chabad community would simplify the girls that much.

I was not too impressed with the "Normal" girls. If they're normal, then Chabad is in trouble!

Aish

Mon, Nov 28 2005, 10:47 pm

[quote="Crayon210"]

Quote:

I think the author broke it down way too simply: Chassidish, Normal, Rebellious. I

I don't think she did that. I think she explained very articulately the differences of girls whos parents are BT as opposed to FFB. she had a very strong insight into this. as well as how some parents handled some form of "rebellion" as opposed to others based on THEIR upbringing.

Crayon210

Mon, Nov 28 2005, 11:09 pm

I disagree. Her categorization was extremely misleading. Don't you think that there are (MANY) girls who fall in the gaps between the categories?

IndyMom

Sun, Dec 04 2005, 12:34 pm

I read the book adn was not impressed at all. I found it boring and I thought she focused too much on the rebellious girls. I did like the girl who went to medical school - does anyone know her in real life? I want to get in touch with her.

miriam

Sun, Dec 04 2005, 1:32 pm

I don't think any of the girls were exactly how she described. I think she meshed different girls into one.

Mandy

Sun, Dec 04 2005, 2:01 pm

my friends and I were interviewed for her book but I don't she ended up using that material. She's very interesting though.

chen

Sun, Dec 04 2005, 5:12 pm

Mandy wrote:

my friends and I were interviewed for her book but I don't she ended up using that material. She's very interesting though.

really? how exciting! guess I'll have to go reread it now that I have met all youse guys on imamother! Wink

You never know, Mandy, she may have disguised you.

Indy, of course she focused on the rebellious ones--or at least the atypical ones. A book about girls who do everything their parents expect of them would not sell!

I, too, wondered about the one going to med school. She will have a tough row to hoe but I hope she makes it. the world can use more frum women doctors esp. in fields like OB/GYN.

sheshycoco

Wed, Dec 07 2005, 12:47 pm

CHEN I totally agree.Especially nowadays with tuition/real estate plus taxes so high, to raise a family one needs a double income.

mommy4

Mon, Dec 12 2005, 7:12 pm

Back to the book, Indymom I do know the girl who went to medical school. And the part at the end that she had twins is true.

I was also interviewed. Mandy, do we maybe know each other? And I did recognize about three of the girls she chose to write about.

girliesmommy

Tue, Dec 13 2005, 9:04 am

I was also interviewed. She sat with me and a few of my friends and recorded our conversation. I think she did this to many girls in order to get a clear picture of a frum (Lubavitch) girl's life and then she chose a few to go into details about.

LikeMeDoes

Tue, Dec 13 2005, 9:50 am

I also read the book a while back (like 1 1/2 years ago) and I wasn't impressed. As far as I remember she wrote in her introduction that she knows that the range of girls she's written about aren't an accurate representation of Crown Heights girls but she chose them because it would make a more interesting read. It was something to that effect.
Although she wrote this in her introduction, it wasn't clear and the book gives a very bad impression.
I don't deny that these issues/problems exist but I don't think that they are as common as one might think from reading the book.

DefyGravity

Wed, Jan 11 2006, 4:04 pm

I think that she accurately portrayed the Crown Heights young adult scene. I used to live in Crown Heights, and being more "modern" hung out with a lot of people that fit her rebellious description. They seemed to be all over the place when I lived there, and I'm sure that not much has changed in the last few years.

Obviously the author is going to focus on the deviant teens. They're more interesting and nobody wants to read a book about kids that follow all the rules. That's not what sells. At the same time, I think that she showed a fairly accurate range of the type of teens that live in Crown Heights, and how people are affected by the society they grow up in.

chanala

Mon, Jan 16 2006, 4:09 am

I recently read this. Many of you would consider my current level of observance quite lacking in comparison, but I was shocked that I have had a much blander life than some of the rebellious girls in this book! I would have never considered doing some of the things some of those girls did!

binah918

Thu, Jan 19 2006, 2:10 pm

I read the book and really enjoyed it. It's not PR for the Lubav. community, but it's not meant to be. As others have written already, she completed this research for her PhD and then "popularized" it for the general public so it would sell. For those who think certain analysis is missing and who have questions with her research technique, this book is written to appeal to the general public. Her hard-core research was published by the university. Aside from that, I really enjoyed her writing style...casual, thoughtful, giving "voice" to her research subjects.

I heard her speak a year or so ago. She was very interesting. She told us that many of the Lubavitchers who spoke with her, really wanted to use the opportunity to mekarev her. She also spoke about comments she had received from the Lubav. community after the publication of the book. Some were good, some were bad. (Just like we see in this thread.) She was very critical, as any "good" university-level researcher is expected to be. She wrote about the good and the bad. But in terms of her very personal feelings, and not the "academic theory" behind her work, she said she was really moved by the experience and learned a lot from the girls and the community. She talks about the very positive effects of relations-segregation in her book and she stressed this again in her talk. All in all, she really came out of the experience with a positive image of Lubavitch.

amother

Tue, Feb 07 2006, 1:03 pm

which years was she around br interviwing? I dont remember her at all.

amother

Sat, Mar 25 2006, 8:49 pm

I just read her book=she realy bad mouthed the people who trusted her embarrassed

Mandy

Sun, Mar 26 2006, 3:02 am

okay, um, you understand that the profiles are not written under the original name, that would be unethical and illegal. What is the problem, then ? Especially as all the people were told it was for her dissertation project ? And signed waivers ? It's not like she was their therapist and they told her all their problems under confidentiality.

Raisin

Sun, Mar 26 2006, 5:38 am

I think she was around c.h in 1994-1996. I remember this student hanging around doing her dissertation when I was in n.y.

amother

Fri, Apr 07 2006, 12:41 pm

why are people so curious to know what is going on behind closed doors?

why is this book so populuar ?

all the librarys where I live have this book .

I live far away from ny .

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