Gitel's Freedom by Iris Mitlin Lav ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

A historical narrative about the lives of Jewish immigrants in the early twentieth century and one woman’s journey through adversity toward personal freedom.  

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site.  A free book was provided for an honest review.

March 2025; She Writes Press; 978-1647428587
ebook, print (312 pages); historical fiction

Gitel lived her entire life looking for her personal freedom.  She's unable to follow her dreams by her parents and the expected roles of women in society and in Judaism. She's kept from her dreams by her husband's health and his beliefs in following his Orthodox Jewish faith and as a mother by raising her two daughters. 

The book covers her life from her childhood in Belorussia when her family moved to America in 1911 to present day.

Gitel spends most of her life unhappy with her lack of choices.  Her parents were very strict and expected her to follow their lead regarding her choices in life.  She made friends in school but wasn't allowed to play freely outside like her brothers or join the school softball team.  She was very smart and wanted to attend a four-year college but her parents were more interested in getting her married.  She was allowed to go to a 2-year program in accounting before her parents started introducing her to men they approved of.  She met Shmuel at a Jewish meeting of people who were looking for changes in the government.  She admired his politics as well as the fact that he was a pharmacist plus her parents liked him and approved of the marriage.  Together they bought their own pharmacy and had two daughters.  She helped run the business and I think it gave her a small bit of freedom but the Depression ended their business and put her back in her role of living her life as her husband thought she should.  Her feelings that she had no freedom in her life to make her own decisions lasted until her daughters were grown and her husband died.  Only then did she feel like she could make her own decisions about the rest of her life.

I liked the overall feeling of the book as Gitel tried to be the person that she longed to be.  My problem with the book is that I never connected with any of the characters -- I didn't like them or dislike them and I felt like I never got to know them enough to have an opinion.  I thought the writing was pretty flat but that may have been due to all of the Yiddish words that were used in the story.  This is a story of a woman's resilience during times of discrimination against women as they were forced to meet societal expectations.

Buy Gitel's Freedom at Amazon  

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

 

 

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