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The Bar Mitzvah and the Beast: One Family's Cross-Country Ride of Passage by Bike
Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The Bar Mitzvah and the Beast: But then his hard-to-impress teenage son, Yonah, refused to have a Bar Mitzvah as he approached age thirteen. No dancing with grandma or chanting traditional prayers? Something had to be done to celebrate this rite of passage. So Matt, his wife Djina, Yonah, and little brother Solomon decided to saddle up for a physical ride of passage -- one that would take them 3, miles by bicycle from the waters of the Pacific Ocean, across the Rockies, through Midwest small towns, and all the way to Washington D.
Armed with ibuprofen, several gallons of Gatorade, and one unpredictable tandem bike the "Beast" , the Biers-Ariel family pedaled across the middle of America, chatting with locals along the way, roasting marshmallows at campgrounds, and quarrelling over the state of climate change, religious identity, and several flat tires. They also collected thousands of signatures on a self-made global-warming petition calling for the United States to undergo its own rite of passage -- one of energy conservation. The Bar Mitzvah and The Beast is a funny, thoughtful memoir of one ordinary American family's extraordinary journey by bicycle, and an enlightening, warm exploration of the bond between a spiritual, nature-loving father and his ambivalent, computer game-loving son.
Paperback , pages. Published April 1st by Mountaineers Books first published January 1st To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Bar Mitzvah and the Beast , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Bar Mitzvah and the Beast.
Lists with This Book. Feb 08, Loren Drummond rated it liked it. I picked up The Bar Mitzvah and the Beast: One Family's Cross-Country Ride of Passage by Bike because the story -- a father's memoir of his son's right of passage cross-country family bike tour -- sounded so familiar. The summer before I started high school, my father packed us onto bicycles and we traveled by bike for two months.
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But the Biers-Ariel family journey turned out to be unique, and wonderfully so. This is a family game for adventure, and I found myself repeatedly astounded by their g I picked up The Bar Mitzvah and the Beast: This is a family game for adventure, and I found myself repeatedly astounded by their grit and good humor.
The best characters in the book, the ones I wanted to spend more time with when I finished, are those the author knows best and clearly cherishes: Dinah, Solomon and especially Yonah. Halfway through their journey, I started planning my next grand adventure. For that alone -- inspiration to set a huge, impossible goal and just go for it -- the book is worth reading. A bonus is that this cross-country journey is more than just a physical feat. It's also about a father and son wrestling with the nature of the universe and their own relationship to religion, morals and Jewish philosophy.
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The only thing slowing The Bar Mitzvah and the Beast down is not the surly tandem that inspired the title, but the political baggage it hauls along on this otherwise great story. Biers-Ariel arguments around climate change feel out of place and rarely have the thoughtfulness that his exchanges with Yonah over the religion and the universe do.
The forced thread also has the unfortunate effect of diminishing the colorful and three-dimensional characters we meet along the road by placing them into one of two camps petition-signers or non-signers. Unlikely to sway those in denial and bordering on annoying to those who already care about climate change, I wish this aspect of the book would have stayed a noble afterthought to the more interesting and original inspiration for the adventure: Luckily, the Biers-Ariel family has enough gumption to haul a little dead weight as they carry us, laughing and stinking in spandex, all the way across the country with them in a single summer.
Feb 28, Stephen Coker rated it really liked it. For now, our two boys are only nine and six-years-old, and we have discussed options for a variety of character-building experiences for them as they approach the middle school years. Our options have included fantasies involving long sailing trips, living in foreign countries and even climbing mountains—but strapping our belongings to our bicycles and pedaling from coast to coast for over two months?
Enduring countless brutal mountain climbs, scorching deserts, brutal wind, crushing humidity, flat tires, impatient drivers, crappy food, bad hotels, dicey campgrounds, frayed nerves and bickering brothers? Amazingly, the Biers-Ariel family—author Matt, Djina, Yonah and Solomon—appear stable from beginning to end, and finish the ride with their relationships and sanity firmly intact. Government to address global warming and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Mar 17, Sarah rated it really liked it. I have many thoughts about this book.
I'll start with these: During the first part of his book, his language is repetitive. His writing is exuberant and joyful, but his language is repetitive.
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During the second half of the book, you feel the excitement of the journey wear off, and his language becomes It more accurately portrays what they're feeling - instead of being an attempt for a laugh. What, in the beginning, felt like it was going to be a flighty, silly, memoir, became a real acco I have many thoughts about this book.
What, in the beginning, felt like it was going to be a flighty, silly, memoir, became a real account of how a man biked nearly 4, miles across the country with his family. One of whom rode a foot behind him the whole way. Not many people have the hutzpah to manage a weekend in that close proximity of their family, let alone an entire summer. I was often struck at how contrived some of the conversations between himself and Yonah seem to be. Though, I am a mother to a rather precocious child myself and admitted that while not necessarily verbatim - they likely did occur in some form or another.
These conversations are thought provoking, not only for Biers-Ariel, but for the reader as well. Well, maybe not if you're already in Yonah's camp. Their thoughts and revelations on Global warming were somewhat new at the time, though, in five years after this epic journey we've heard all of this - though none of it has taken hold. He sums it up at the end, "Change is voluntary".
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He's right - and while riding your bikes 4, miles across the country is inspiring, it didn't do a lot. Akin to Solomon's roadkill ritual, the world uttered, "that's sad" followed by 8 seconds of mourning. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Click to share on Facebook Opens in new window Click to share on Reddit Opens in new window Click to share on Twitter Opens in new window Click to print Opens in new window Click to email this to a friend Opens in new window.