Between Gods

I was recently given the chance to interview the three authors who are coming to the IFOA event in Thunder Bay.  One of those authors is Alison Pick.  I'm not at all familiar with her work, so I put her newest book, Between Gods on hold.  Between Gods is a memoir, a genre I don't normally read.  But it sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try.

Between Gods tells the story of a dark time in Alison's life.  While working on her novel Far to Go, she was going through a really dark depression.  It is also the story of secrets: Alison's family survived the Holocaust, but told no one they were Jewish.  And so Alison finds herself drawn to Judaism, almost on a cellular level.

But Alison is Jewish only through her father (Judaism is passed through the matrilineal line).  And she is going to marry a Gentile.  So the road to Judaism is a tough one.  She finds a rabbi who will sponsor her, but there is a catch: to become Jewish, her husband must convert, too.  While he is supportive of her desire, Degan does not want to convert.  And so this is the story of Alison's struggle to find her way back to the light (and back to the religion that feels so right to her).

Between Gods is a powerful story with beautiful (and at times haunting) text.  I loved every minute of reading it, and am now very interested in trying some of her fiction (particularly Far to Go).