Review of Go Forth from Where You Are

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Sabrina Tusavitz
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Review of Go Forth from Where You Are

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[Following is a volunteer review of "Go Forth from Where You Are" by Tova Herman.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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In Go Forth from Where You Are by Tova Herman, we start with Tess struggling with being an empty nester. As she grapples with finding her new purpose, Tess learns she must look within. Tess had converted to Judaism and is now turning to her faith in a time of need. She discovers Jewish spirits, including the demon Dybbuk, which can possess a soul for their wrongdoings. Looking back through her life, as a daughter, wife, and mother, we watch Tess evolve spiritually. She is now looking back at how her possible Dybbuk might have been present during the difficulties she faced throughout her life. Sharing stories of her childhood through adulthood, we learn of her many close relationships. From her grandparents and parents to her brothers and children, she includes her struggles in some of these relationships. Using her faith and eastern and western spiritual practices, Tess works to find her new place in this world.

Reading this book was both challenging and simple at the same time. Tess can point to past stories where her Dybbuk was present and I thoroughly enjoyed those chapters. She also had many short anecdotes leading to some simple easy-to-read short chapters. The thirteenth chapter of the book was by far my favorite, as I feel any reader will connect with it in one way or another since it is all about reading! The challenging part was the Hebrew and Sanskrit words throughout the book. Herman provided us with two dictionaries in the back and kindly told us about it at the beginning of the book. I am thankful that she did, as I would not have finished the book without it.

Although the dictionaries provided were helpful, I wish that Herman had also given more descriptions of the Hebrew and Sanskrit words, as going back and forth between the dictionaries and the stories would sometimes disrupt the storyline. I also found some of the stories to be a bit jumpy within the bigger storyline. As I continued reading, those stories did seem insightful; however, I felt they would be more fluid in a different order.

I would rate Go Forth from Where You Are by Tova Herman 3 out of 4 stars. I did not give it four stars for a few reasons; the need to go back and forth between the back of the book, find the word in one of the dictionaries, then comprehend it, then apply it to the context of the story made it difficult for me to enjoy the book. The difficulty may be less for someone more informed on Jewish culture. I also think I would have enjoyed it more if the storyline was a little more cohesive. I did enjoy learning some more about Jewish culture and was overall content with this book.

I would recommend this book to most readers as the short chapters of small anecdotal stories were enjoyable. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning some more about Jewish culture and spiritual healings or anyone who loves autobiographies, as the journey Tess experiences leads to some great awakenings. I would not recommend this book to someone who struggles to learn new words and implement them right away, as this emphasized the difficulty in going back and forth from the stories to the dictionaries.

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Go Forth from Where You Are
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