The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of religious discrimination and violence.

“Because all these girls were wearing plain white robes, the boys didn’t know if the girls were rich or poor, or even which tribe they were from. It created a level playing field, and the boys could choose a wife without thinking about if she was poor, or if she was from some undesirable rival tribe.”

The novel begins on Tu B’Av, a minor Jewish holiday with origins in the biblical grape harvest tradition described in this passage. The tradition reflects the novel’s thematic interest in the benefits and challenges of intercultural exchange. Unlike the ancient people described in this passage, Hoodie and Anna-Marie are keenly aware of their cultural differences and the social forces keeping them apart.

“Yeshiva students aren’t allowed to talk to girls, let alone girls dressed like this one. I didn’t really want to talk to her. It was more like I had to. I was drawn toward her, as though pulled by some kind of sci-fi tractor beam.”

The strict cultural expectations guiding relationships between men and women in the Orthodox Jewish community prohibit yeshiva students like Hoodie from spending one-on-one time with women and girls, especially non-Jewish women like Anna-Marie. Despite his understanding of these restrictions, Hoodie feels drawn to Anna-Marie as if by a supernatural force, highlighting his growing independence and sexual awakening—two key components of a traditional coming-of-age arc. He later decides that God brought him and Anna-Marie together for a specific reason.

“Ever since we opened the yeshiva, and my father’s company bought the theater, the locals had been trying to stop us from moving here. They talked about us like we were an invading army, like we were going to ride in on horseback with torches and pitchforks, to set their buildings on fire and slaughter them kosher-style.”

This passage reflects the intense antisemitic sentiment the Orthodox Jewish community faces in Tregaron, highlighting The Dangers of Antisemitic Rhetoric. Here, Blum positions the violence of this rhetoric as ironic, given the fact that the Jewish community is the victims of violence in Tregaron, rather than its perpetrators.