Olive Days
By Jessica Elisheva Emerson (Counterpoint)

This debut novel from Jessica Elisheva Emerson will likely elicit a wide range of reactions. This is fitting, as that’s exactly what the book’s protagonist, Rina Kirsch, a harried young mother with two children, experiences—a range of strong emotions.

A Modern Orthodox Jew living in Los Angeles, Rina is caught off guard when her husband, David, suggests participating in a one-night wife swap with other couples in their community. His goal, he claims, is to help breathe new life into their marriage. But afterward, nothing is the same.

Despite Rina’s reticence about David’s prurient scheme, she has secrets of her own. She lives a religious life, but deep down, she is an atheist. She is also having an affair with a local haredi rabbi. After the wife swap, David encourages her to go back to painting. She signs up for a local art class—only to begin yet another affair with her married, non-Jewish art teacher.

Emerson deftly captures how stultifying the early years of motherhood can feel, and her depiction of Rina’s dissatisfaction with her life can be uncomfortable to read. Rina does everything that is demanded of her from her young children, her husband and from the Jewish community. How she prepares for a Purim feast is but one example, making “lentil-and-tomato soup, stuffed turkey breast, butternut-squash-and-mushroom pot pie, green beans with pistachios and date syrup, and three varieties of triangle-shaped hamantaschen pastries” on top of her equally elaborate handmade mishloach manot. Her affairs offer her the freedom to meet her own needs.

But that freedom comes at a price, irrevocably changing two families and multiple relationships.

Through it all, it’s not clear whether Rina feels remorse or takes responsibility for those she has hurt or gets closer to what she’s looking for. While Emerson has crafted fascinating characters set in a fully realized and detailed Jewish world, Rina’s lack of self-reflection and persistent unhappiness threaten to overshadow the story. Even when she finds someone who understands her, she remains unhappy: “She’d been known, fully known…and she would keep it there like a secret, and it would have to be enough.”

Of course, this is what also happens in life. Events don’t always have neat endings, and there is no guarantee of fulfillment in life. It is in depicting this realism that the book shines.

This is a story about sacrifices and how the choices we make impact others. Olive Days may not be a happy story, but it is one that will have you thinking about it long after you finish reading.

Jaime Herndon is a writer and avid reader. Her work can be found at Book Riot, Kveller and other places.