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A review by courtofdreams18
The Orchard by David Hopen
4.75
While I get why this book has been compared to “A Secret History” by Donna Tartt, this association really just grinds my gears. While on the surface both books are about a mostly dude squad in academia, Tartt’s characters blur together in a morally vacant world making each character almost indistinct. Despite the fact that “A Secret History” is almost unimaginably word-heavy, I had remembering who was who. The characters, along with the writing, felt tedious. “The Orchard,” meanwhile, is a kind of ethical opposite. By which I mean, ethics — even extreme perspectives on what an ethical action or life is — takes center stage. My fav books are ones that make me think hard, and ones wherein I feel different closing the final cover. I def felt that w Hopen’s book. Also the writing was great. Funny too.
My biggest gripe were the female characters, which felt wearyingly one-dimensional — more or less plot devices around which the dudes operated. Not an uncommon trope, but one that normally bothers me so much I sometimes can’t bring myself to finish a book — oddly tho, while this bugged me, it didn’t get in the way of my desire to keep reading. Tbh I had trouble putting it down.
One thing to note: I suspect that folks who’re unfamiliar w Tanakh, Talmud, Jewish ethics, or even just Jewish mannerisms and ways of thinking, etc - might feel slightly outside this book or discern the sometimes staggering amt of what’s happening behind the scenes (like, on a reference-level, I mean). I def think it could be read by a general audience, but suspect those who’ll get the most out of it are those who sit slightly closer to the subject matter. (To be clear, I think this is a real gift of the book — a relief, not a quibble.)
One thing to note: I suspect that folks who’re unfamiliar w Tanakh, Talmud, Jewish ethics, or even just Jewish mannerisms and ways of thinking, etc - might feel slightly outside this book or discern the sometimes staggering amt of what’s happening behind the scenes (like, on a reference-level, I mean). I def think it could be read by a general audience, but suspect those who’ll get the most out of it are those who sit slightly closer to the subject matter. (To be clear, I think this is a real gift of the book — a relief, not a quibble.)
When I finish a book I love, I often feel almost bereft, a heartache that seems to cast such a pall over my real life, my days for a while feel muted… I felt that with this one. I really wanted to stay in this world a little longer, though perhaps not so much because of character attachment (tho I was fond of Aryeh). I dunno… mostly it just felt exquisite to read a book that had so much happening on a subtle-intertextual level or something. So many head nods, subtle elusions, references. Maybe it’s a sign of a beautiful book when you leave it feeling waves of sadness and also a strange sort of narcissism, as though the author wrote it — if not with you in mind — with a person like you. Books like that tend to make a person feel lonelier when they finish them, but less alone within the folds of the world between the pages.