April 23, 2012
Gloria Zimmerman, a chutzpadik Jewish girl from Chicago is a most unusual modern day Maccabee who defeats the Oxford establishment.
As a Rhodes Scholar and academic superstar, she has come to Oxford to study feminist poetry. Yet the rigors of the academy pale in comparison with the untreated Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder that she suffers, fueled by her overachieving Jewish parents, and manifested in a deathly aversion to germs and human contact. Her OCD has left her hands rubbed raw and her psyche shattered.
Her dormitory room neighbor (who is also, to her mortification, her loomate) is Henry Young, the appealing but underachieving musician son of an overbearing and disapproving Oxford don.
Who knew that life in one Oxford dorm, with a shared bathroom, would become the catalyst for self-examination and exploration not only of one’s soul,but ultimately of one’s soulmate? The lyrics of Van Morrison’s music, the sweetness of fresh sufganiyot, and an old clawfoot bathtub provoke this unexpected Hanukkah tale where the exotic locale of Oxford University is an engaging backdrop for true learning as Gloria Zimmerman and Henry Young discover the loveliness in their own germs and each other, the best Hanukkah treat of all.
As a Rhodes Scholar and academic superstar, she has come to Oxford to study feminist poetry. Yet the rigors of the academy pale in comparison with the untreated Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder that she suffers, fueled by her overachieving Jewish parents, and manifested in a deathly aversion to germs and human contact. Her OCD has left her hands rubbed raw and her psyche shattered.
Her dormitory room neighbor (who is also, to her mortification, her loomate) is Henry Young, the appealing but underachieving musician son of an overbearing and disapproving Oxford don.
Who knew that life in one Oxford dorm, with a shared bathroom, would become the catalyst for self-examination and exploration not only of one’s soul,but ultimately of one’s soulmate? The lyrics of Van Morrison’s music, the sweetness of fresh sufganiyot, and an old clawfoot bathtub provoke this unexpected Hanukkah tale where the exotic locale of Oxford University is an engaging backdrop for true learning as Gloria Zimmerman and Henry Young discover the loveliness in their own germs and each other, the best Hanukkah treat of all.
