by admin

Poor Marjorie Morningstar!

When I was a teenager, I read Herman Wouk’s Marjorie Morningstar. Poor Marjorie! She gave her virginity away before marriage and was made to pay for her mistake. Poor me! I believed that Marjorie deserved to be punished! I also remember envying her Central Park West existence, with its horseback riding. I thought all Jewish girls were supposed to live that way, and that I had gone astray with my choice of parents (working class) and my home (Chicago).

Fran Manushkin is the author of Latkes and Applesauce: A Hanukkah Story, The Matzah That Papa Brought Home, and Starlight and Candles: The Joys of the Sabbath. Miriam’s Cup, about the prophet Miriam, will be published for Passover 1998.