A Jewish Girl for Chris: Mr. Perfect on Paper by Jean Meltzer
When chronic illness forced Jean Meltzer to drop out of rabbinical school, her father told her she should write a book— “just not a Jewish one because no one reads those.” Years later, Meltzer’s books can be found on every major holiday reading list, from Buzzfeed to Business Insider. Her first novel, “The Matzo Ball,” arguably laid the foundation for Jewish love stories hitting the mainstream in recent years, currently in the works for a Netflix movie with producers Lance Bass and Ben Savage.
“I think as diverse authors, especially, we have a write to tell our stories the way we want to tell them,” Meltzer says, displaying much of her own story with Jewish identity and chronic illness into her characters.
Meltzer has made a point on her social media and throughout her press tour for “Mr. Perfect on Paper” that she is not shying away from highlighting other recent Jewish authors, even when when “competing” in the same genre for readership.
“It’s hard to be a Jewish author,” she admits, and yet she felt so supported by the Jewish author community after both her releases, making an effort to extend the same kindness to others, adding “One success for a Jewish author is a success for all of us.”
Meltzer’s newest book “Mr. Perfect on Paper” follows Jewish dating app CEO Dara Rabinowitz on a journey for love after her Bubbe’s plea for a grandson-in-law goes viral. Dara has always dreamed about finding the perfect Jewish husband. A doctor or lawyer. No prior relationship baggage. Similar beliefs and upbringing to her own. What she did not foresee is falling in love with the journalist following her story. A TV new personality. Divorced, with a daughter. And most importantly, not Jewish.
This interfaith “rom-com” novel made me laugh way too hard at times. The dates were horrendous, with feet-fetish men and accidental anaphylactic shock. As Meltzer puts in the book, “Dara was a bit old-fashioned when it came to love. She believed that handcuffs, like spanking, should be reserved for people with established safe words.” Dara had a lot of unexpected spunk and I absolutely loved it. “Mr. Perfect on Paper” is about finding love where you least expected it—with the hot blond news anchor you work out watching every morning, not the handsome doctor that checks all of her boxes. As a fake-blond journalist, I can appreciate the message.
For her first novel, “The Matzo Ball,” it was very important to Meltzer to tell a Jewish couple story, but for her second novel, she always knew it was going to be an interfaith romance, like her own.
“I dated everyone from Chabadnicks, to reform. Rabbinical students to secular Jewish guys. It didn’t matter. I dated everyone. I really wanted to find my bashert [soulmate],” Meltzer says, remembering back to her days of singledom. “Finally, I ended up going on a cruise with my extended family and I meet this soldier. He’s about to deploy. He is the kindest gentlest man… The plot twist—he was not Jewish.”
Though her books often deal with love in a comical way, the stories beneath every character go much deeper than expected in contemporary romance. Questions of faith, death, humanity, and life compatibility often come into question. Both main characters have lost a parent or spouse. They deal with patterns of grief, anxiety, and pride. Chris appreciates Dara’s overthinking. He helps her come back to herself in a way that’s not dismissive. He calms her. Dara helps Chris work through his grief and find new growth in the relationship with his daughter. It’s this balance that makes the couple work, that draws them to one another throughout hardship and stigma.
For Meltzer, her list of “why not” was simple. “He’s about to deploy to Iraq. He’s a soldier. Living in his mama’s basement. Still a college student. Hasn’t even graduated. He was from Staten Island. It was a long-distance relationship. I was on the Upper West Side,” Meltzer laughs, describing her now-husband when they first met. “On every level, it shouldn’t work, and yet when I was around him, I was so calm and comfortable and my soul looked right. He came over for Rosh Hashana, took a bite of my brisket, and he looked up and said ‘I’m gonna marry you.’” And he did.
While “Mr. Perfect on Paper” might not have had that definitive of an ending, you can tell the relationship between Chris and Dara is going to work out. They decide to take it slow, ask more questions, and discover where their personal boundaries are. This is something that was very important to Meltzer. “Every interfaith journey or intermarriage, is its own journey and that’s for its own couple,” she says, fearing that adding a definitive ending would act as an instruction or position on “what to do.”
Though a tad frustrating at times (I absolutely shipped this couple from the moment she gawked at him on screen in Chapter 1), I loved the number of conversations and logistics this couple works through, both minor and existential. Often in romance novels, the future becomes an afterthought. The guy comes back. The dragons disappear. The love interest shows up at her doorstep and there are no consequences for the dinner in her oven. No fire to kill their passionate “the end.” It just isn’t realistic to how real relationships work. “Mr. Perfect on Paper” is not just the next quirky interfaith love story. It’s a universal story of connection, no matter the season or year of life.
5 stars
