Today I Am A Boy

From Publishers Weekly At age 66, theatrical designer HaysDcoauthor of the best-seller My Old Man and the Sea (with his son Daniel)Ddecided to study for his bar mitzvah, making up for decades of neglect in his religious education. This charming but slight memoir mixes the author's account of his classroom experiencesDamong a bunch of 12-year-olds he dubs the "Hormone Hurricanes" and a rabbi younger than his sonDwith reflections on his family and his own life path. (Trouble at the acclaimed National Theater for the Deaf, which he founded, has left him unmoored.) Hays's deft touch (not to mention his wife's delightful malapropisms) makes the book an easy read, but the narrative can be choppy: for example, a chapter devoted to a heartfelt account of his mother's death is followed by one that includes his musings on the stresses his preteen classmates must face. The sincerity of Hays's quest can't be doubted; for class, he wrote (and here reprints) a thoughtful essay on what might have happened if Anne Frank had lived. However, his classmates aren't that compelling (they're just kids, after all), and there's discontinuity between his life and his religious experience: he notes that he has already written about the themes of "growing older and lost love" in a book about stage lighting. Following his bar mitzvah, he has yet to grapple with some of the deeper questions provoked by the Jewish tradition. This book lacks the magic touch of Hays's last one and is unlikely to perform at a commensurate level; his theatrical background, however, should energize his 6-city tour. Agent, Martha Kaplan. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal As the 21st-century begins, Reform Judaism in the United States is experiencing a revival, especially as older secular Jews make the effort to learn what their parents or grandparents knew as practicing Jews. Hays's spiritual autobiography is yet another excursion into this territory (see, for instance, Lee M. Hendler's The Year Mom Got Religion: One Woman's Midlife Journey into Judaism, LJ 11/15/98). Hays gives us a completely charming and spellbinding narrative as he shares his hesitating and then more confident steps toward his adult bar mitzvah at the age of 66. Along the way, he grows sensitive and loving toward his fellow Hebrew school classmatesDenergetic boys and girls of 12 and 13. Readers familiar with My Old Man and the Sea, the best seller Hays coauthored with his son, will recognize the author's voiceDat times self-serving, at times overconfident, then sad and pensive. This book will surely be appreciated by young and old alikeDand will most certainly be a welcome gift item for those wondering where to find an appropriate bar or bas mitzvah present. Recommended for general religion collections in public and college libraries.