Jul 21 2008
Fear and Yoga in New Jersey [novel]
This is a screwball comedy about a family (mom, dad, son, grandma and grandpa) all busy “seeking” something - the thing is, none of them are quite sure what it is. 
Nina, the protagonist, owns a posh yoga studio in New Jersey. She’s the perfect enlightened yoga instructor (at least to all appearances) until a feng shui consultant wanders in to tell Nina her studio has bad energy - setting off a ripple effect of comedi-tragic events.
As Nina becomes increasingly freaked out by her feng shui worries, her husband loses his job, her normally good son acts out in school and her blustering parents decide to visit. All of this is framed by the ominous arrival of Hurricane Ida, an ideal metaphor for this family’s internal chaos and desperation.
You can taste the sense of squeaky-clean New Jersey suburbia - and understand the price people pay to maintain such outward “perfection.” Like many families, Nina’s picture perfect projection isn’t built on solid ground.
If you grew up in a family of strong women on the East Coast, there are a lot of recognizable elements here: Nina’s own controlling thoughtlessness; Nina’s old school, matriarchal overbearing mother; a mellow, slightly cowed, slightly incompetent set of “good provider” husbands; and the quiet son who decides to rebel against the Stepford-perfect ways of his politically-correct, New Age mom by secretly becoming an orthodox Jew.
Each character is cunningly drawn and entirely realistic, even if the series of events is not. There are no heroes, or even villains here (well, except the actually very scary Homeland Security officer).
The resolution offers no nicely packaged answers. Everyone is still a bit messed up. Perhaps they’ve have drawn back from the edge of desperation and grown slightly in self-knowledge.
Or maybe not. At the very end, Nina reveals she’s latched onto her next big thing…
It’s a short book and a quick read. While the plot isn’t particularly compelling, I found it hard to put the novel down. If anything, this story could have been an episode of Desperate Housewives…
Stumble it!
What a great review - it makes me want to go out and buy the book. The characters sounds so real.
Thanks for the nice review. I especially liked this insight.
You can taste the sense of squeaky-clean New Jersey suburbia - and understand the price people pay to maintain such outward “perfection.”
Thanks Jennifer and Debra. As a woman who grew up in New York with a Jewish mother there was a lot of me to identify with here. Plus I am addicted to yoga. I will read just about anything with the word Yoga in the title.
Debra, keep on writing! Let me know when your next book is out for review.
This sounds like a fun story. I love yoga, feng shui and can definitely relate to the matriarchal mother.
[...] Debra Gallant commented on my review of her Book Fear and Yoga in New [...]