We look forward to seeing you on your next visit to the library. Find a location near you.

This Is Not a Love Story: A Memoir
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

Book Cover
Average Rating
5 star
 
(0)
4 star
 
(1)
3 star
 
(0)
2 star
 
(0)
1 star
 
(0)
Published:
Little, Brown and Company 2015
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description
A razor-sharp, hilarious, and poignant memoir about growing up in the closed world of the ultraorthodox Jewish community.
The third of six children in a family that harks back to a gloried Hassidic dynasty, Judy Brown grew up with the legacy of centuries of religious teaching, and the faith and lore that sustained her people for generations. But her carefully constructed world begins to crumble when her "crazy" brother Nachum returns home after a year in Israel living with relatives. Though supposedly "cured," he is still prone to retreating into his own mind or erupting in wordless rages.
The adults' inability to make him better — or even to give his affliction a name — forces Judy to ask larger questions: If God could perform miracles for her sainted ancestors, why can't He cure Nachum? And what of the other stories her family treasured? Judy starts to negotiate with God, swinging from holy tenets to absurdly hilarious conclusions faster than a Talmudic scholar: she goes on a fast to nab coveted earrings; she fights with her siblings at the dinner table for the ultimate badge of honor ("Who will survive the next Holocaust?"); and she adamantly defends her family's reputation when, scandalously, her parents are accused of having fallen in love — -which is absolutely not what pious people do.
For all its brutal honesty about this insular community, This Is Not a Love Story is ultimately a story of a family like so many others, whose fierce love for each other and devotion to their faith pulled them through the darkest time in their lives.
Also in This Series
Formats
Adobe EPUB eBook
Works on all eReaders (except Kindles), desktop computers and mobile devices with reading apps installed.
Kindle Book
Works on Kindles and devices with a Kindle app installed.
OverDrive Read
Need Help?
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
More Like This
Other Editions and Formats
More Copies In LINK+
Loading LINK+ Copies...
More Details
Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
07/28/2015
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780316400718, 9780316365758
ASIN:
B00P74VFXK
Reviews from GoodReads
Loading GoodReads Reviews.
Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Judy Brown. (2015). This Is Not a Love Story: A Memoir. Little, Brown and Company.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Judy Brown. 2015. This Is Not a Love Story: A Memoir. Little, Brown and Company.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Judy Brown, This Is Not a Love Story: A Memoir. Little, Brown and Company, 2015.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Judy Brown. This Is Not a Love Story: A Memoir. Little, Brown and Company, 2015.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
LibraryOwnedAvailable
Shared Digital Collection22
Staff View
Grouped Work ID:
7109cdf8-0039-3bae-e5fd-d41aea196dc7
Go To Grouped Work
Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 16:47:11
Date Updated:
Dec 06, 2020 02:43:40
Last Metadata Check:
May 05, 2024 08:09:17
Last Metadata Change:
Jan 30, 2024 06:40:40
Last Availability Check:
May 05, 2024 08:09:21
Last Availability Change:
Mar 06, 2022 21:11:59
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
May 07, 2024 02:10:39

OverDrive Product Record

images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0017-1/{67A09512-B3AF-46FA-9BD1-0A4AD4AD3424}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0017-1/{67A09512-B3AF-46FA-9BD1-0A4AD4AD3424}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0017-1/67A/095/12/{67A09512-B3AF-46FA-9BD1-0A4AD4AD3424}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0017-1/67A/095/12/{67A09512-B3AF-46FA-9BD1-0A4AD4AD3424}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
formats
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780316365758
      • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
      • id: ebook-epub-adobe
      • identifiers:
            • type: ASIN
            • value: B00P74VFXK
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780316365758
      • name: Kindle Book
      • id: ebook-kindle
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780316365758
      • name: OverDrive Read
      • id: ebook-overdrive
mediaType
eBook
primaryCreator
    • role: Author
    • name: Judy Brown
title
This Is Not a Love Story
dateAdded
2015-11-13T15:37:00-05:00
contentDetails
      • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=2019438
      • type: text/html
      • account:
          • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
          • id: 1151
sortTitle
This Is Not a Love Story A Memoir
crossRefId
2019438
subtitle
A Memoir
id
67a09512-b3af-46fa-9bd1-0a4ad4ad3424
starRating
3.6

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain
False
formats
      • fileName: ThisIsNotaLoveStory_9780316400718_2019438
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 560537
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780316400718
      • rights:
            • type: Copying
            • value: 0
            • type: Printing
            • value: 0
            • type: Lending
            • value: 0
            • type: ReadAloud
            • value: 0
            • type: ExpirationRights
            • value: 0
      • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-epub-adobe
      • onSaleDate: 7/28/2015
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=67a09512-b3af-46fa-9bd1-0a4ad4ad3424&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
      • fileName: ThisIsNotaLoveStory_9780316365758_2019438
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 0
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780316365758
            • type: ASIN
            • value: B00P74VFXK
      • name: Kindle Book
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-kindle
      • onSaleDate: 7/28/2015
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=67a09512-b3af-46fa-9bd1-0a4ad4ad3424&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
      • fileName: ThisIsNotaLoveStory_9780316400718_2019438
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 558809
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780316400718
      • name: OverDrive Read
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-overdrive
      • onSaleDate: 7/28/2015
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=67a09512-b3af-46fa-9bd1-0a4ad4ad3424&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
creators
      • role: Author
      • fileAs: Brown, Judy
      • bioText: Judy Brown wrote the controversial novel Hush—a finalist for the 2011 Sydney Taylor Award for outstanding book on the Jewish experience—under a pseudonym because of feared backlash from the
        Chassidic world. Brown's identity has since been revealed and she has left Chassidism. She has been profiled in The New York Times Magazine and has written for the Huffington Post and the Jewish Daily Forward. She holds a master's in creative writing and lives in New York City.
      • name: Judy Brown
publishDate
2015-07-28T00:00:00-04:00
isOwnedByCollections
True
title
This Is Not a Love Story
fullDescription
A razor-sharp, hilarious, and poignant memoir about growing up in the closed world of the ultraorthodox Jewish community.
The third of six children in a family that harks back to a gloried Hassidic dynasty, Judy Brown grew up with the legacy of centuries of religious teaching, and the faith and lore that sustained her people for generations. But her carefully constructed world begins to crumble when her "crazy" brother Nachum returns home after a year in Israel living with relatives. Though supposedly "cured," he is still prone to retreating into his own mind or erupting in wordless rages.
The adults' inability to make him better — or even to give his affliction a name — forces Judy to ask larger questions: If God could perform miracles for her sainted ancestors, why can't He cure Nachum? And what of the other stories her family treasured? Judy starts to negotiate with God, swinging from holy tenets to absurdly hilarious conclusions faster than a Talmudic scholar: she goes on a fast to nab coveted earrings; she fights with her siblings at the dinner table for the ultimate badge of honor ("Who will survive the next Holocaust?"); and she adamantly defends her family's reputation when, scandalously, her parents are accused of having fallen in love — -which is absolutely not what pious people do.
For all its brutal honesty about this insular community, This Is Not a Love Story is ultimately a story of a family like so many others, whose fierce love for each other and devotion to their faith pulled them through the darkest time in their lives.
reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: Nina Stibbe, author of Man at the Helm and Love, Nina
      • content: I love books about families and this one is so warm and funny that I couldn't put it down....This Is Not a Love Story actually is one.
      • premium: False
      • source: -Leah Vincent, author of Cut Me Loose: Sin and Salvation After My Ultra-Orthodox Girlhood
      • content: An instant classic....With echoes of Scout Finch, the feisty Menuchah guides readers on an unforgettable journey of love, justice and compassion.
      • premium: False
      • source: Jennifer Traig, author of Devil in the Details and Well Enough Alone
      • content: In this thoughtful and engaging memoir, Judy Brown offers a fascinating glimpse into a world, a family, a life....I was utterly absorbed.
      • premium: False
      • source: -Kirkus Reviews
      • content: Vividly capturing the voice of her younger self, Brown portrays an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community marked by piety, prejudice, and superstition, and her loving family roiled by the mystifying, often terrifying, affliction of her younger brother.... A tender story gently told.
      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        April 1, 2015
        A child's perspective on a family's ordeal. In her revealing nonfiction debut, Brown, who published a young adult novel, Hush (2010), under the pseudonym Eishes Chayil, recounts growing up Hassidic in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1980s and '90s. Vividly capturing the voice of her younger self, she portrays an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community marked by piety, prejudice, and superstition and her loving family roiled by the mystifying, often terrifying, affliction of her younger brother, Nachum. "When I tried to share with him, he blinked, flailed his hands, and sometimes gave a piercing shriek," Brown recalls, "and I didn't want to play with him anymore." The author wasn't satisfied when adults told her that everything-including Nachum's madness-was part of "God's Grand Master Plan"; or that Nachum was crazy because her mother didn't nurse him; or he must have been dropped on his head. Talmudic lore held that an angel, after imbuing an unborn child's soul with holy knowledge, strikes him on the upper lip to erase that memory. "But sometimes," Brown was told, "the angel strikes the upper lip too hard," making it impossible for the child to remember anything, "even how to speak, how to say simple words. Such a child is born mad, like my brother." The author felt cursed by her brother's existence-not only the havoc he wreaked in the family, but because she believed that having a defective brother lessened a matchmaker's chances of finding her a husband. Only her mother was convinced that Nachum could be helped. She took him to Israel, going from doctor to doctor in search of a diagnosis. The results were no more satisfying than the story of the angel: ADHD, psychosis, and chemical imbalance. Finally, one doctor diagnosed autism. Nachum improved dramatically after a few years in a special school, becoming, at last, the brother whom Brown could love. A tender story gently told.

popularity
63
links
    • self:
        • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/67a09512-b3af-46fa-9bd1-0a4ad4ad3424/metadata
        • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
id
67a09512-b3af-46fa-9bd1-0a4ad4ad3424
starRating
3.6
images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0017-1/{67A09512-B3AF-46FA-9BD1-0A4AD4AD3424}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0017-1/{67A09512-B3AF-46FA-9BD1-0A4AD4AD3424}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0017-1/67A/095/12/{67A09512-B3AF-46FA-9BD1-0A4AD4AD3424}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0017-1/67A/095/12/{67A09512-B3AF-46FA-9BD1-0A4AD4AD3424}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
isPublicPerformanceAllowed
False
languages
      • code: en
      • name: English
subjects
      • value: Biography & Autobiography
      • value: Multi-Cultural
      • value: Religion & Spirituality
      • value: Nonfiction
publishDateText
07/28/2015
otherFormatIdentifiers
      • type: ISBN
      • value: 9780316400725
mediaType
eBook
shortDescription
A razor-sharp, hilarious, and poignant memoir about growing up in the closed world of the ultraorthodox Jewish community.
The third of six children in a family that harks back to a gloried Hassidic dynasty, Judy Brown grew up with the legacy of centuries of religious teaching, and the faith and lore that sustained her people for generations. But her carefully constructed world begins to crumble when her "crazy" brother Nachum returns home after a year in Israel living with relatives. Though supposedly "cured," he is still prone to retreating into his own mind or erupting in wordless rages.
The adults' inability to make him better — or even to give his affliction a name — forces Judy to ask larger questions: If God could perform miracles for her sainted ancestors, why can't He cure Nachum? And what of the other stories her family treasured? Judy starts to negotiate with God, swinging from holy tenets to absurdly hilarious conclusions faster than a Talmudic scholar:...
sortTitle
This Is Not a Love Story A Memoir
crossRefId
2019438
subtitle
A Memoir
publisher
Little, Brown and Company
bisacCodes
      • code: BIO002000
      • description: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural & Regional
      • code: BIO018000
      • description: Biography & Autobiography / Religious
      • code: BIO026000
      • description: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs