1 - Reading about Paul Cowan journey was really interesting for me. When he started his book by saying “ I am an American and a Jew” it made me think the there was a spilt in the two. I felt that he didn’t know how to either combine the two or he felt that there is a divide between them. His journey starts with him sharing stories about his youth and how his father changed his name at age twenty-one. Louis cowan , the father of Paul cowan didn’t let Paul and his siblings meet any of his fathers relatives. The Father of Louis cowan was and orthodox Jew but he was abusive and a failure in being a businessman. Louis was guarded about his youth that’s why he didn’t want any of his children meeting his side of the family. Paul then starts to talk about he felt as an orphan because he went to a school were Jews were the minority and he didn’t feel that his parents practiced Judaism the way they wanted too. He tries to find his identify after that by writing about New York poor Jewish neighborhoods. He found that there are three types of Jews. First, orthodox Jews they are the strictest Jews. Second, there are conservative Jews. Third, the liberal Jews who are more open minded. Finally Paul talks about meeting his wife, which later converted to Judaism and how they both started practicing Jews as conservative…show more content… He talks about his sexual journeys continued unabated. He says,” I cared for nothing but to love and to be loved” , which made me think about how he confuses love with lust. He explains how the event where he and his friends stole and threw pears at pigs wasn’t because they needed the pears or because the garden had better pears than they had back home. He wanted to steal the pears just because he wanted to do the sin. He wanted to feel that he was able to do the sin. Also, there was the feeling of being pressured by his friends to do those sins with
