Next, Stephen's father, Solly Dubner , is introduced. He too, was also a Jew living in New York. Stephen was very close to his mother. When she died, this began his depression. Solly's father was a strong believer in Judaism and practiced his religion every day. During WWI, Solly was sent to islands in the Pacific. Here he became interested in Catholicism. He was not sure what Catholicism was all about. A priest friend of his sent him to church meetings back in New York. This is where he meets Florence Greenglass.

Solly had to then return back to the islands. He decided to become a Catholic and received his Baptism. He wrote Florence and told her of his decision. From then on, they were pen pals until the war was over. When Solly's father found out about his conversion, he disowned him and never talked to him again. Florence's mother was very upset, but her father understood.

Eventually, the two had gotten married. They changed their names to Paul and Veronica Dubner. They decided God's will for them was to have a big family. They had a total of eight children, Stephen being the youngest. While growing up, Stephen's family was very poor and did not have much. Paul and Veronica were very religious and related their poor lives and everything else to God and Catholicism.

The family attended church every Sunday. Paul and Veronica started going to Charismatic meetings and practiced speaking in tongues. One night at one of these meetings Stephen's father died. From then on it was Stephen, his mother, and sister Beth living in a house for ten. Beth went to college and Stephen eventually did too. His mother sold their farm and moved to Florida with some friends. Stephen was more involved with a rock band then his schoolwork. They finally got a break and started traveling and performing. One day Stephen decided this was not for him and moved to New York.

In New York, he met Abigail Seymour. Abigail introduced Stephen to a man named Ivan Kronenfeld. Meeting this man started Stephen's search of his Jewish heritage. First, he decided to start practicing the religion. Next, he started the search to find who his father really was before he became Catholic. He asked his mother of the past and found all of his father's living relatives to discover what they knew. This still wasn't good enough. He went to Poland to trace his history there. After all his research he believed he finally knew his father and that God wanted him to be a Jew.

The major arguments in this book are definitely Jewish against Catholic. Solly and Florence converted on their own free will. Both of their parents could not understand why and just decided that they were turning their backs on the Jews. Stephen's mother felt the same way when he converted. She would always argue that Catholicism was the true religion. When the time came the parents were wrong for getting mad at the children. Solly's father died never talking to his son again because he was so stuck on his religion. I believe Stephen's mother was very understanding when he told her. She told him if he feels like that is what God wants of him, then he should do it.

The author did a great job on portraying both religions. From what I know of Judaism, his knowledge was accurate. Being a Catholic, everything he said about this was correct. The only thing I did not like was he generalized Catholics too much. It seems he believes all Catholics think the Jewish religion was wrong. Maybe his mother thought this way, but I don't. I believe all people can believe in any religion and no one knows what or if there is a correct one. He also put some Catholic believes down. He was very skeptical of the Virgin Mary and Jesus' Resurrection. He might not believe in it and that's fine. He wants to try so hard to disprove his mother's Catholic beliefs and make her think like him. I did not like that at all. I found myself getting mad while I read because he kept putting down Catholicism. On the other hand, his mother respected his beliefs and tried to help him understand her beliefs better. Then he even goes as far as saying all these Catholics were helping kill the Jews in the Holocaust. His mother replies that some Catholics did help, but were mislead by God. She also says no one did enough to save the Jews. It was a horrible thing to happen, but he can't go around blaming Catholics.

I think Stephen was very fair to Judaism. All he talked about was how he understood it better. He believed it made more sense to him. I got a feeling of hatred to Catholics. The last half of the book was he and his mother arguing constantly. He gets so mad at his parents for converting to Catholicism in the first place. Then he realizes that if they had not converted he would never have been born. It wasn't very likely for a Jewish family to have eight children. Until the end of the book it seemed this was the only thing he liked about Catholicism.

I think Jewish people would probably like this book a lot. It explains a lot of their religion and they are not put down in any way. Catholics will probably like the book , but get upset. I really enjoyed the book at first. I felt sorry for Stephen because he did not know his past, his family, or even his father. He has the right to know his past and even convert back to his original religion. I just think he tries too hard to destroy his mother's Catholic beliefs.

This book did help me understand faith of religions more. When I first heard of this book, I thought the parents were forced to convert. I thought they did it to escape persecution. It turned out to be the total opposite. They both did it because they felt God wanted them to. To see the reaction of Solly's father and Florence's mother, I see how important religion is to some people. I can see where Solly's father and Florence's mother are coming from. They risked their life to come to America to have the right to practice their own religion. Then their kids just convert to another religion. It would feel like a stab in the back. Then they have their youngest child, Stephen, to grow up in do the same thing. His parents were only saving him from the evil world. He grew up in a happy life and family. He had no idea how corrupt the world really is. I finally realize how sensitive the subject of religion is. The book had a lot of heartache in it. I think Stephen finds his peace when he and his mother stop fighting.

At the end of the book, Stephen meets Cardinal O'Conner. After his discussion with this man he seems to understand his religion and his mother's religion better. The Cardinal believes Jews and Catholics will learn to get along. He believes this because of the signing between Israel and the Holy See. He says "First, I think more and more Catholics are coming to realize that there has been, absolutely, categorically has been persecution of Jews by people in the Church over the course of centuries. On the other hand, I think that a number of Jews have begun to recognize that some targets that were attacked should not have been" (p 302).

All in all, the book wasn't bad. Stephen wanted to be a Jew and spoke the truth of his conversion. He was very honest with his mother even though it might ruin their relationship. Stephen had a struggle with his soul from day one. It took a lot of searching and believing to put the struggle to an end. This book taught me, you can't make a person believe what you believe if they can't feel it in their heart. It is a shame the family got so torn apart because of all the conversions. I think his family is more understanding now. The Jews and Catholics finally get along and hang out together as a family. I think they owe all of that to Stephen. He brought both religions together. At the end, both Stephen and his mother stopped being closed minded and accepted each other. Stephen said it best, "I would love to see Florence and Solly again, to sit knee to knee and hear their stories, to marvel at everything we wrestled through, the three of us, all on account of having been born with such turbulent souls" (p317).