A generation ago there was no way a book like “Yiddish Yoga” could have found a publisher, which is just one more reason to appreciate it now.
Subtitled “Ruthie’s Adventures in Love, Loss and the Lotus Position,” this charming little novel by Lisa Grunberger (published in October by Newmarket Press, hardcover, $15) takes an entertaining look at some big issues.
Those seeking a way of easing into some of the more serious aspects of the High Holy Day season could do far worse than absorbing the wisdom of Grandma Ruthie.
The book opens as Ruthie, a 72-year-old New Yorker and recent widow, decides to cash in on a gift from her granddaughter — a year’s worth of yoga lessons.
“I know you are strong, Bubby,” Stephanie writes,” but I think yoga will help you grieve. This is not a cult, I promise! I do it every day since Mark and I broke up, and have never felt better.”
It’s a testament to author/illustrator Grunberger that she has managed to make Ruthie a character without making her a caricature. Grunberger plays it straight in the titles of the vignettes that comprise the book; the vignettes are pure “Shtetl-meets-Ashram.”
Ruthie writes with asperity about the poses, the vocabulary and the outward appearance of her classmates, but she is equally candid about pointing out her own foibles.
Early on, her teacher, Sat Yam (“…but with a ponem (sic) like his, I did some reconnoitering and found out that his name is Schmuel Lupinsky”) tells the class that should they find themselves thinking during meditation, they should just say “thinking, thinking” as a way of refocusing on their breathing. Ruthie’s got a better idea, though.
“When I find myself thinking,” she writes, “I say, ‘Valium, thank you, valium, thank you.’ My new mantra.”
In the course of sharing what she’s learning in yoga class, Ruthie reveals enough of herself for us to join her in mourning her beloved husband Harry, empathize over her estrangement from her sister Pearl and kvell when she realizes that she’s lost 10 pounds without dieting and has more energy after six months of yoga.
Other pleasures await readers, among them Ruthie’s foray into Internet dating and a two-second headstand, but the greatest joy of this book is its matter-of-fact depiction of a reassuring fact — that growing older doesn’t mean we have to stop growing.
A yoga teacher, Grunberger has a doctorate in comparative religion and teaches in the English department at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Amy Waldman is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer.
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