When Rachel arrives
with her husband from Lodz to the Mandatory Land of Israel, under British
administration, in order to set up a kosher Jewish home, she brings a number of
elegant suits and hats, a pack of recipes for dishes of Polish cuisine and
endless memories and nostalgia that torment her soul. Bound by tradition,
Rachel tries to run her modest, petit-bourgeois home in Tel Aviv of the 1930s
and 40s, in accordance with “what is appropriate” and “what will the neighbors
say.” She fulfils her duty as a housewife and a respectable woman and does not
permit herself to partake of even the simplest pleasures of life. She is constantly
distressed by the chasm between the young, torrid city, through which the wind
of abandon is blowing, and the restraint and cultivation of her Polish
upbringing.
Rachel’s three children struggle, each in their own way, with their mother’s
strict upbringing. Motl, who since his childhood has been known for his
mischievousness and jocularity, abandons his studies and plunges into the new
and exciting world, in which there are also girls, especially one, both
educated and beautiful, haughty and self-disciplined young woman, whose
character is – ironically – similar to that of Rachel. His sister, Rivkah, a
“good” and obedient girl, gives in without a fight to the match that her
parents have made for her with an uncouth and obtuse man. And as for Hayaleh,
the youngest daughter, she is creative and rebellious and longs to break away
from her home, to live the life that her mother didn’t dare to try. She finds a
boyfriend from a kibbutz, only to discover later that the same boundaries that
restricted her are also etched inside her.
Shula Modan brilliantly conveys the spirit of the period. With great psychological
sensitivity she weaves the story of a family that is at a crossroad, with its
members struggling to choose between independence and external temptations on
the one hand, and, on the other, stifling conservatism of remaining on the
beaten, rigid paths.
REVIEWS
There is
a captivating magic in Teatime for Good Girls … The book summons up an
absolute nostalgic surrender, and rewards the reader for it. It transported me
to another period, both historical and literary, and immersed me within it …
The book maintains – and this is its prime virtue – a strict coherence between
content and form.
Omri
Herzog, Haaretz
Shula
Modan is one of those enviable people who seem to understand what it is to be
Israeli a little better and a little more accurately than others … A pleasantly
flowing book … Shula Modan serves up rich folklore in simple language, in
colors that bring back to life an entire period and allusions that build
bridges between then and now.
Ran
Bin-Nun, Yedioth Ahronoth
Teatime
for Good Girls
accurately, vividly, humorously and compassionately displays the abundance of
possibilities that the heroes face and the prices they pay for their choices …Shula Modan
writes in superb language that reminded me of the stories of Shalom Aleichem
that I loved to read as a child … A lovely novel that deals mainly with inner
freedom, our boundaries, and to what extent we are able to truly break through
them. A story that happens in the 1930s but is entirely relevant today. Warmly
recommended.
Shlomit
Lica, Saloona
I gulped
this book down in a few days, as I was gradually captivated by its magic…. Life
in Tel Aviv in the third decade of the last century … that can be no less
engrossing as adventure stories, if one only knows how to tell about them, and
Shula Modan, it emerges, knows only too well … Masterfully, Modan unfolds a
depiction of the everyday lives of her characters, their weaknesses, their
fears, the anxiety over what “they” will say … and this is all the magic –
lives that we have not really known about … This ability, to open a window onto
an unfamiliar world, one that is actually right here, is a wonderful and
riveting ability, and this book is absolutely to be recommended to anyone who
wants to become acquainted with and to know what used to be here, and to all
booklovers in general.
Iris
Ganor, Literary Blog
A period piece, sensitive and charming, depicting Tel Aviv before the establishment of the state.
Hagit Galatzer, Seatelon