Acts of Faith: A Novel

I read this book for the first time in 1992/93. It was a very nice love story and described the two faiths with accuracy and simplicity. It had a twist in that the female main character wanted to be a rabbi, while her brother did not.Without telling the story, let me say it is a beautiful love story and both main characters are very strong personalities. The story weaves back and forth between the two story lines seamlessly.I wanted to reread this book recently because of a discussion I had been having about someone regarding the Jewish faith and marrying someone outside that faith. The story was a beautiful as the first-time I read it.I highly recommend it for a quick read that is not at all lightweight in plot or characters. You simply don't want to put it down.

Probably one of my top five summer reads of all time, along with Summer Sisters and The Godfather. Not a masterpiece, but you follow the lives of three friends in religious training and feel the weight of the decisions they make (or have made for them) over three decades. My personal favorite by Segal. I know most people prefer Love Story, but Acts of Faith is his true masterpiece.

I own first editions of all Segal's books, but the Kindle allows me to carry the entire armload. This novel explores the paradox of two religions serving the same God, but from wholly different perspectives. This is perhaps the author's best work, a rendering that is hauntingly beautiful and well-balanced. It is a multiple love story-- two men's love of their God, one Jewish, one Christian. Yet it is also a love story of a Jewish woman, who fervently loves her religion but as the daughter of a Hasidic Rav, can never hope fully to embrace it. She also loves a Christian, one who loves her dearly but is powerless to respond. He is a Catholic priest.This is one of those books that makes you joyful for having read it.

What a beautiful surprise! I expected this to be a different sort of book. Instead, I found a compelling love story within incredibly well-researched, in-depth descriptions of two of the world's great religions. The story focuses on three kids from Brooklyn, each with different challenges and aspirations. Over 25 years, their lives intertwine in unexpected ways, in environments that include Jerusalem, the Vatican, Montreal, and Brazil, as well as a deeply religious Jewish area of Brooklyn, and the Irish-Catholic area that adjoins it. I'd rate this book as one of the best I've read in the past 25 years.

This is one of my all-time favorites. I read it years ago and have been wanting it on Kindle. When it finally was available I was thrilled. I can't really put my finger on why I like it so much, maybe it's the peek into lives that are very different than my own. The characters all struggle with things in life that I can certainly relate to, maybe that's it. Now that it's home in my Kindle I know it's one that I will reread yet again.

This book is such a great story of a timeless love between faith and between two humans. You feel their struggles as the learn to live their lives apart and together.

Brought back memories and I loved it. In fact I will read it a second time which is something I rarely do. Order a few more of his books.

Great book! Easy to carry, light weight.

I appreciated the significant amount of research carried out and used appropriately within this well written story. Through the characters, there emerges a philosophical argument about the suppression caused by fundamentalist religious beliefs within families living in a contemporary and complex world. I found the book had a combination of very interesting storylines which kept my constant attention.

Really enjoying this book. An easy read!

excellent read

If you are going through that patch of life where taking decisions is becoming difficult, read this beautiful book. It helped me to take the most difficult decision while I was reading this book. It instills faith.The story is beautiful of two different faith, yet both strong in the belief of own. The message is beautifully articulated that the faith of divine power is within you be whatever religion you follow.

Seemed to be a very old copy