I can be a little bit restless on flights; I’ll read a bit of the book I’m currently working my way through, stop to watch an episode or two of whatever Real Housewives franchise I’m revisiting, try—and fail—to sleep and wonder why every plane snack option is so loud and crunchy to eat I can no longer hear myself think. That wasn’t the case on a recent trip from Miami to New York. Rather than flip flopping between activities and hoping Uber surge pricing isn’t in effect upon arrival, I spent the entire flight laser-focused on my Kindle. The book that held my attention? Olive Days, a debut novel by Jessica Elisheva Emerson, whose stories and poems have been published in journals including Air/Light Magazine, Midwestern Gothic and more.
Set in Los Angeles between 2011 and 2013, Olive Days centers on Rina Kirsch, a Modern Orthodox Jewish woman in her early 30s. Married with two kids, Rina’s life is turned upside down when her husband pressures her into a night of wife swapping with other couples in their community (I couldn’t help but think about the similarities between this wife swap and the “soft swinging” in the smash-hit series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives).
Rather than reigniting the passion in her marriage and proving to be a worthwhile experiment, the night leaves Rina feeling betrayed and lonelier than ever. Soon, she begins an affair with a rabbi she doesn’t love, and after that enters a begins a passionate relationship with Will, the teacher of the painting class her husband suggested she take (at first, she justifies the flirtatious nature of her interactions with Will by telling herself that, yes, it was her husband’s idea she take the class in the first place). Rina and Will fairly quickly realize that they’re deeply in love with each other—much more so than either is with their respective spouse. Still, they both have children, and sneaking around is risky business—though they’re largely undeterred. All the while, Rina struggles with what’s expected of her versus what she wants for herself, while also dealing with a crisis of faith: Does god even exist?
Beautiful prose and real, deeply flawed characters aside, I found it fascinating to learn more about Orthodox Jewish culture in the 21st century, and appreciate that Elisheva Emerson doesn’t dumb anything down for Gentile readers, which would’ve made the book seem less authentic and more didactic. (I was happy to Google certain words, phrases and traditions with the help of American Airlines’s ridiculously overpriced in-flight WiFi.)
