Yom Kippur a Go-Go

by Matthue Roth

Matthue Roth is an American original: an Orthodox Jew who cites Outkast and Michelle Tea among his influences, who won't touch a light switch on Shabbos but mimics a screaming orgasm while on stage.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573442194
• ISBN13: 9781573442190
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Cleis Press
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Surprising and Enlightening

Matthue Roth's autobiography is the story of a young man who has decided to become an Orthodox Jew in the way punk rock kids go straight-edge. Like, you're born one way, but then it gets serious. What's more he decided to move to San Francisco and hang out with a ragtag bunch of, I don't know, San Francisco people that I can only assume would have knocked his rabbi's socks off. Which I don't know much about. I came to this book as a Christian-raised East coaster who lacks a big picture in most of the matters described herein. Simply put, I was blown away. Whether these memoirs are half-remembered or utterly fabricated is impossible for me to say - for all I know every word of the novel could be direct from a diary and true as gospel - but I have never encountered such a touching and fascinating insight into the process of being a twenty whatever year old kid and moving somewhere looking for something and finding what might have possibly been what you were looking for, and maybe not. Fascinating because of the detail. When sometimes, after a few too many drinks, I might think to myself how interesting my life has been and, if events were laid in the proper order, it might actually be interesting, could actually feel like a book. Roth seems to have drunk just enough to remember it all perfectly and beautifully. His descriptions of ennui and hopelessness read like boredom preening its fur with waves of electricity rippling down the novel's spine. Many could easily compare this to Dave Eggar's blockbuster knock 'em sock 'em of young man memoir a few years back. And the comparison isn't too off; these are two stories of two men moving to SAN FRANCISCO, a city that effectively doesn't exist as there is no place in the world that could independantly serve their very different needs. And yet, while in neither of these tales the city provided the satisfaction which the authors originally saught, both have their endings. And as a reader, it was I that was satisfied. Matthue Roth is a generational misfit, a man who looks to tradition while riding the waves of the Pacific future. His story is a story of shock, awe and exposure that while different than my own is a part of my generational history. Read this book.

WoW!!!

Compelling book by a great author. Found another of his books, Nevermind the Goldbergs and fell in love with it. Read this one in a day, and it's a compelling and funny story that I couldn't put down. Defintely recommend it!

a fun and quirky read

In Yom Kipppur a go go, the author revels in difference, like so many of us who live here in the San Francisco area. He moves between several sub-cultures and gives plenty of yummy details from both an outsider and a newish insider perspective. This slice-of-life engaged me, made me laugh and made me ponder the integration (or lack of) varying parts of my own life.