TITLE: Fervour
AUTHOR: Toby Lloyd
PUBLISHER: Sceptre
ISBN: 978-1399724616
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Sharon Sobotka
“Fervour”, written by Toby Lloyd, is a soul-wrenching story of a Jewish family living in England and the effects of parental religious beliefs on each of the three children in the family.
Set in the early 2000’s, the book opens with a dying Yosef, the Polish-Jewish paternal grandfather of the Rosenthal family. Having been a Holocaust survivor, Yosef is a stoic influence on his son and daughter-in-law as well as on his three grandchildren. Yosef summons each of his grandchildren, Gideon, Elsie and Tovyah, into his attic bedroom to share his final words of wisdom. Both Gideon and Elsie are given prophetic words from Yosef as to where their lives will be going. Tovya, on the other hand, having been born the second son, is bestowed the duty of protecting the others. Yosef stresses to Tovya the importance of believing in God. Yosef drills him on the reasons that without God what would we mere humans be worth.
The children’s parents, Eric and Hannah, are highly educated and successful people in their own right. Eric, a prominent lawyer has an absolute and unyielding belief in God. He follows his faith’s teachings and traditions without question and accentuates those teachings to his children.
Hannah, is a published author whose views on the Jewish plight is the driving force behind her children’s secular and religious education. Never to back down from outside opposition concerning the Jewish cause, each of her children are greatly affected by her dogged determination in her socially conservative writings regarding Judaism and her Jewish family’s experiences. Like Eric, she strongly and fervently believes in the teachings of Judaism. However, she takes it one step further by employing the mystical aspects of her faith tradition.
Like every family, the Rosenthal’s are not spared the tribulations of raising children with individual personalities and mindsets. Each of the Rosenthal children go down very different paths. They are affected by the actions of everyone in the family. Their parents thought they were handling each challenge correctly but they misinterpreted the actions of their children.
Did Eric’s and Hannah’s unyielding beliefs and actions cause irreversible life paths for their children? Did the Rosenthal children take their paths because of their parents religious and worldly teachings or were they simply hard-wired to think and act as they did?
Toby Lloyd gives readers the chance to reassess how we affect others in what we teach and whether we give the learner the room to think independently of our teachings. I cannot put this thought provoking book to rest; my mind keeps asking many “what if” questions.
AUTHOR: Toby Lloyd
PUBLISHER: Sceptre
ISBN: 978-1399724616
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Sharon Sobotka
“Fervour”, written by Toby Lloyd, is a soul-wrenching story of a Jewish family living in England and the effects of parental religious beliefs on each of the three children in the family.
Set in the early 2000’s, the book opens with a dying Yosef, the Polish-Jewish paternal grandfather of the Rosenthal family. Having been a Holocaust survivor, Yosef is a stoic influence on his son and daughter-in-law as well as on his three grandchildren. Yosef summons each of his grandchildren, Gideon, Elsie and Tovyah, into his attic bedroom to share his final words of wisdom. Both Gideon and Elsie are given prophetic words from Yosef as to where their lives will be going. Tovya, on the other hand, having been born the second son, is bestowed the duty of protecting the others. Yosef stresses to Tovya the importance of believing in God. Yosef drills him on the reasons that without God what would we mere humans be worth.
The children’s parents, Eric and Hannah, are highly educated and successful people in their own right. Eric, a prominent lawyer has an absolute and unyielding belief in God. He follows his faith’s teachings and traditions without question and accentuates those teachings to his children.
Hannah, is a published author whose views on the Jewish plight is the driving force behind her children’s secular and religious education. Never to back down from outside opposition concerning the Jewish cause, each of her children are greatly affected by her dogged determination in her socially conservative writings regarding Judaism and her Jewish family’s experiences. Like Eric, she strongly and fervently believes in the teachings of Judaism. However, she takes it one step further by employing the mystical aspects of her faith tradition.
Like every family, the Rosenthal’s are not spared the tribulations of raising children with individual personalities and mindsets. Each of the Rosenthal children go down very different paths. They are affected by the actions of everyone in the family. Their parents thought they were handling each challenge correctly but they misinterpreted the actions of their children.
Did Eric’s and Hannah’s unyielding beliefs and actions cause irreversible life paths for their children? Did the Rosenthal children take their paths because of their parents religious and worldly teachings or were they simply hard-wired to think and act as they did?
Toby Lloyd gives readers the chance to reassess how we affect others in what we teach and whether we give the learner the room to think independently of our teachings. I cannot put this thought provoking book to rest; my mind keeps asking many “what if” questions.