kaddish.com

A novel

By: Nathan Englander

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

The celebrated Pulitzer finalist and prize-winning author of Dinner at the Center of the Earth and What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank delivers his best work yet, a streamlined comic masterpiece about a son’s failure to say Kaddish for his father.

Larry is the secular son in a family of Orthodox Brooklyn Jews. When his father dies, it’s his responsibility to recite the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, every day for 11 months. To the horror and dismay of his sister, Larry refuses - imperiling the fate of his father’s soul. To appease her, Larry hatches an ingenious if cynical plan, hiring a stranger through a website called kaddish.com to recite the prayer and shepherd his father’s soul safely to rest.

Sharp, irreverent, hilarious, and wholly irresistible, Englander’s tale of a son who makes a diabolical compromise ingeniously captures the tensions between tradition and modernity - a book to be devoured in a single sitting whose pleasures and provocations will be savored long after.

©2019 Nathan Englander (P)2019 Random House Audio

quite a religious mystery!

between the religuous fervor of a prodigal son and the synocism of a criminal, the storyteller weaves quite a maze of conflicting motives and conflicted consciences. As any good mystery should, the reader is completely taken off-guard by the last few chapters.
The narrator did an excellant job of rendering the accent and subculture of hasidim, drawing his characters as familiar loveable men and women. Even the scoundrels we can empathize with to some extent. There are places where he speaks rapidly using yiddish and Hebrew phrases that I couldnt catch. But otherwise a very good speaker.

Entertaining and informative

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the narrator was perfect. Just enough humour to keep it entertaining while also being informative in the Jewish customs of saying kaddish for a lost loved one.

Strange and incredibly male

This book is the inside account of a narcissistic male character with very little that actually happens. Don’t recommend.

Kaddish. Com

I found the story predictable. Not at all surprised by anything. The performance was done.

Almost Perfect

The narrator had a little trouble with consistency between Ashkenazic and Sephardic pronunciation but was otherwise great. Some pronunciation choices made me cringe.

The ending was a bit disappointing, a little too G-Rated for a book that decidedly was not. Fun, entertaining and well worth the time.

a little odd

it got a little weird at the end. really kind of an odd duck all the way through

Great experience!

As an utterly non-religious person I greatly enjoyed this glimpse into a world completely foreign to me. I loved the tenderness of this emotional and spiritual coming of age story. I loved the rhythm of the language, interspersed with the unfamiliar sounds of yiddish. I deeply enjoyed the humor and the feeling like the author is throwing his hands in the air, giving up trying to make sense of human reasoning, just embracing the human experience with love!
Thank you for riding such a lovely book.

Problematic performance

Not sure if the text itself has too much pathos for my taste, but the performance sure does. The way Shapiro pronouces the Hebrew words reeks of effort, he overdoes the Israeli accent, using it in a billion places where an American jew would use a different pronunciation, and misses the emphasis where Israelis wouldn't. So annoying to anyone who's ever heard Hebrew spoken by any of these groups.

excellent storyline

excellent storyline and accurate depictions of orthodox culture. I would recommend this book to anyone.

You don't have to be Jewish...

I really enjoyed this book from page one. I listened to the audible and the voices made it even better. I'm not Jewish, but that did not take away from the book at all. I learned a lot about Jewish beliefs and practices, and I feel I am a better person from reading it. The author definitely has a way with words. I plan to read another book by Nathan Englander.