Raised a born-again atheist, Robin Chotzinoff had no interest in religion— and practically no experience in it—until she turned forty. When she suddenly discovered a belief in God, she had no idea what to do next.
In Holy Unexpected she describes her journey from a New York childhood through years of unhappiness, drugs, and drift. She investigates what she believed in before she believed in God (the healing power of junk food, music, psychopharmacology), and how a happy marriage impelled her toward a higher power. When she discovers that Judaism embraces arguing with God, hot sex, and acts as opposed to beliefs, she embarks on a journey to reconstruct her Jewish heritage and forge a relationship with her faith.
Robin wrestles with the meaning of Torah, discovers how to keep the Sabbath and still go to Walmart for duct tape, and learns to pray while snowboarding. But her real education in the meaning of Judaism occurs as she rides the ups and downs of day-to-day life, and prepares both for her bat mitzvah and for her father’s death.
Writing with enormous humor and intimacy, and without proselytizing or self-absorption, Chotzinoff takes readers on an unexpected religious journey lit by humor and grace.
Chotzinoff is that rare spiritual seeker who manages to be sincere without taking herself too seriously. Her quest introduces us to a score of learned religious figures, but it is often her own conclusions that prove most eloquent.
- The Washington Post
The book. . .is at times moving — as when her disbelieving dad is brought to
tears watching Chotzinoff’s daughter, Coco, read her Torah portion at her
own bat mitzvah. And at times it is hysterical — as when an adventurous
female rabbi teaches her to pray and snowboard simultaneously.
- The Forward (Read full review)
It's tempting in talking about one's religious conversion to suggest that
maybe everyone else ought to do the same. With her irreverence and wit,
Chotzinoff avoids that temptation.
- Rocky Mountain News
Chotzinoff's fearless humility shines through everything she writes, making her someone we can listen to and talk with about gardening or God.
- L.A. Times
Chotzinoff's mid-life spiritual awakening is alternately tender and surprisingly funny. A gifted writer, reporter and dreamer with two previous nonfiction books and numerous articles, she gracefully draws meaning from simple moments... It's a memoir, but there's little arrogance or ego on display. The sensitivity of this memoir is in its cast as much as its poetic rendering of an ancient faith, race, culture or whatever you believe Judaism to be... Chotzinoff's personal story is a different kind of exodus, a journey from rootlessness to belonging that many of us - Jewish, Christian or Muslim - make in our lives.
- Denver Post (Read full review)