The Smoothest Way Is Full of Stones (Characters)

Characters

Esty Adelstein

Esty Adelstein, who is about thirteen or fourteen years old, is Rebecca's older cousin. Her name was formerly Erica, but after her mother became an Orthodox Jew, Erica's name was changed to Esther, a change that seemed to affect her personality. As Erica, she was a mischievous girl, talking back to her mother and doing naughty things such as throwing bits of paper at old ladies in the synagogue. But when her mother took her to Israel, Esther repented her former ways and became pious. She spends a lot of her time praying and studying the Torah and telling her cousin Rebecca that she and her mother should be more observant of Jewish religious rituals and customs. But ironically, it is Esty, in her willingness to read the book Essence of Persimmon: Eastern Sexual Secrets for Western Lives and in her boldness in making a nocturnal appointment with Dovid and daring to kiss him, who shows herself to be more reckless, less concerned with following the precepts of her religion than her supposedly more secular cousin Rebecca. Although she may not realize it, Esty is somewhat hypocritical in her attitudes, doing exactly what she wants while presenting a pious exterior.

Alan

Alan, Rebecca's father, does not appear directly in the story, but he speaks to his daughter and to Aunt Malka on the telephone. His conversation with Rebecca shows that he has an easy, comfortable relationship with her. But he is angry with Malka for telling Rebecca to inform her mother about the importance of the mikveh, the ritual bath. It appears that Alan has strong views about how he wishes his daughter to be raised and does not take kindly to what he regards as interference.

Dovid Frankel

Dovid Frankel, a teenage boy who attends the Shabbos dinner at the home of the Adelsteins, is tall and tanned, and both Rebecca and Esty are fascinated by him. Esty believes she is in love with him. Although Dovid comes from an Orthodox family, he shows signs of rejecting his religion. He does not believe that smudged letters in a mezuzah could be the cause of a family's house fire, and he expresses his frustration at such beliefs by going outside and kicking at the metal clothesline frame. Dovid also secretly possesses a book about eastern sexual techniques, and he deliberately touches Rebecca on the arm, even though as an Orthodox Jew he is not supposed to touch a woman who is not his mother or sister.

Lev Handelman

Lev Handelman is Mrs. Handelman's husband.

Mrs. Handelman

Mrs. Handelman is Dovid Frankel's older sister. She is eighteen years old and is pregnant.

Aunt Malka

Aunt Malka, Rebecca's aunt, was formerly Marla Vincent, a set dresser for the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. Then she got divorced from her husband, and she and her daughter, then called Erica, went to live in Israel for a year. In Jerusalem, she met Shimon and became an Orthodox rather than secular Jew. She married Shimon and returned to the United States, changing her name from Marla to Malka. She credits her new religion with helping her to recover from her divorce. Aunt Malka now raises her large family (Shimon had five children by his former wife) according to Orthodox principles. She busies herself preparing the Shabbos dinner and organizing a family trip to pick blackberries.

Rebecca

Rebecca is a young girl of about twelve or thirteen, and is the narrator of the story. She lives in Manhattan, New York City, and her parents are secular Jews. When her mother's baby dies in infancy, Rebecca is sent to live with her aunt and uncle in upstate New York. Her relatives are Orthodox Jews, and while she stays with them Rebecca feels pressure from her cousin Esty, and from within herself, to be more observant of the Jewish religion. At home in Manhattan, Rebecca was a mischievous and adventurous girl, admitting to stealing naked-lady playing cards from a street vendor and kissing a boy from the swim team behind the bleachers. But her life changes during the summer. She and Esty spend much time praying, studying the Torah, and observing dietary laws and other Orthodox rituals and customs. These customs are quite unfamiliar to Rebecca, since in the more informal atmosphere at home she is more used to going to movies or eating a Chinese dinner. Over the summer Rebecca begins to think seriously about moral and religious questions. She wonders about the nature of God's justice, and at some moments she feels a sense of God's presence, although she is not sure what this might signify. She develops a desire to do God's will. At the end of the story she shows she has the maturity to make a moral decision of her own, as she lets the forbidden book about sexuality fall to the bottom of the lake.

Uncle Shimon

Uncle Shimon, Rebecca's uncle, is an Orthodox Jew and has lived in Israel. His first wife, with whom he had five children, died, and after meeting Malka in Jerusalem, he quickly remarried. Shimon appears to be a contented man who takes his religion seriously. He believes that each person is responsible for his relationship with God, and although his beliefs might be considered narrow, he also possesses a kind of spiritual humility. He does not believe, for example, that it is always possible to know the ways of God or why God allows certain things, even bad things, to happen.