‘Study for Obedience’ by Sarah Bernstein (2023) – 189 pages
How can one individual uproot an entire town’s prejudices which they have been nursing for hundreds of years? The young woman in ‘Study for Obedience’ attempts to overcome the townspeople’s animosity toward her by leaving dolls woven from willow on doorsteps and windowsills. This act only causes the townspeople to revile her more.
When our young woman moves to this small town in “a remote northern country”, she is not just an outsider who is at first distrusted. She visits the town cafe where all the townspeople customers shun her.
“Did I not have a right to a cup of coffee, a slice of pie? What had I ever done wrong?”
She does not speak their language. When the farmers start having calamities with their animals and crops – “the madness and extermination of the cows, the demise of the ewe and her nearly born lamb, the dog’s phantom pregnancy, the containment of domestic fowl, a potato blight” – her presence in the town is blamed for them all.
The young woman’s brother who moved to this town first has not faced the prejudice or ill will that she has faced. Why not? That is a question I still have from this novel.
They are both from an ethnic group and a religion that has been reviled in the North for a long, long time.
“It was the late twentieth century. What did we have left? A prayer book, some scraps of song, a history lesson beginning with devastation.”
‘Study for Obedience’ is challenging and original. It is not a comfort read. There is no dialogue in the novel, no well defined characters beyond our young narrator herself, and very little plot. The conclusion is open-ended with no resolution to the problem of this town’s hatred for her. Perhaps there is no resolution, no happy ending. This novel has the ambiance of a fable, not an upbeat fable. It has been compared to the Shirley Jackson’s story ‘The Lottery’ which also deals with the sinister side of small town life in a different way.
‘Study for Obedience’ is an authentic attempt to deal with pervasive anti-Semitism even in the years after the Holocaust.
Grade: A
Tony's Book World 
Posted by Annabel (AnnaBookBel) on October 23, 2023 at 8:43 PM
We’ll have to disagree on this one. I really found the narrator’s navel-gazing just too unbearable and really really wanted something to happen!
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Posted by Anokatony on October 23, 2023 at 9:04 PM
Hi Annabel,
These northern countries always prided themselves on how civilized they were compared to, let’s say, the African countries. However World War II proved that these northern countries’ civilization was just a sham, and they were just as bloodthirsty and violent as the cannibals in Africa. So I believe Sarah Bernstein’s criticism is fair.
But I can understand how a novel with no dialogue, no named characters, little plot, and no plot resolution might be difficult to like. Yes, that probably is navel-gazing. :)
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