Beyond the pale

摘要

Novels about life in ultra-religious sects usually focus on frustration. Written mostly by and for outsiders, their heroes tend to pine for escape. Even compassionate portraits, such as Chaim Potok's "The Chosen" and Eve Harris's "The Marrying of Chani Kaufman", suggest that such cloistered societies are repellent as well as beguiling. Perhaps because novelists prize the feelings of individuals, they are instinctively sceptical about the appeal of closed, rules-bound groups.