If Francesca Lia Block wrote a book about a shomer negiah punk rock girl from New York who goes to L.A. to star in a sitcom (co-starring mostly goyim) about an Orthodox Jewish family, Never Mind the Goldbergs would be that book.

She didn’t write it, but performance poet Matthue Roth did, and it’s sharp and smart and suspenseful and it’s got heart and it’s devour-in-one-Shabbos (if not one sitting) good. The protagonist is Hava, a 17 year-old smartass who divides her time between kosher pizza joints and the gutterpunk stoops of St. Mark’s before she’s “discovered” and ships off to the American Bavel to navigate sleaze, office politics, her alcohol intake, her davenning schedule, and the Hollywoodization of frumkeit. This is the kinda book you’re gonna make all your friends read after you do, it’s like that.

Also check out Roth’s spoken-word piece, “Orthodox Girls”, which opens with the line, “Orthodox girls’ names turn me on…”