Jennifer Lang’s Landed: A yogi’s memoir in pieces & poses, captures one woman’s journey to navigate a life circumscribed by other people’s rules. Lang is married to a Frenchman she met during what she thought was going to be a short stay in Israel in 1989, but reluctantly remained living there for years, shifting from tourist to immigrant. She is at odds with his observance of their Jewish faith, a more religious interpretation than how she was raised. Landed is a follow up to Lang’s debut memoir, Places We Left Behind, which chronicles the conflicts in her marriage as the couple attempts to live in Israel, America, and even France, to find a home that would make them both happy.
In Landed, Lang struggles to adapt when she returns to Israel in 2011 at the request of her husband after raising their children mostly in America. I relate to this aspect of Lang’s journey, having lived in Israel off and on in the 1990s. I recall the culture shock of living in a region beset by political tension, and feeling homesick for my family in Chicago. I would gaze at the Mediterranean and long for Lake Michigan. On the other hand, there is a sense of familiarity living in a country of Jews that feels special after growing up in America where the Jewish population is less than 3 percent. And while for me it came as a relief not to have to explain why I didn’t celebrate Christmas, to move to Israel was to be yet another version of “other.” As Lang observes, “My accent will always betray me; my hardwired manners will forever set me apart.”
After returning to Israel for her son’s military service and to appease her husband, Lang is surrounded by conflict. The gas masks made necessary by the Iraq war and the bus bombings of the 1990s have been replaced in 2011 with sirens, missiles, and stabbings. And yet, Lang also recognizes that having the choice to live in Israel is a privilege as she observes others who are unable to leave: refugees, migrants and asylum seekers from Asia and Africa. She acknowledges the hardships of the Palestinians and their quest for statehood as well as what it is to mingle with the Druze, Christian, and Muslim populations of Israel. Lang’s book is an important reminder that there are not only many ways to be Jewish, but there are also many different ways to be Israeli. Readers who have a preconceived idea of what it is like to be either might be surprised.
Landed is also an exploration of how Lang learns to turn away from the world that imposes ideas of how she should live her life and discovers her personal strength. While in America, she trained with Rodney Yee, a nationally acclaimed yoga teacher, and brought his method to Israel, where she taught her own classes. She applies the spiritual wisdom from the chakra system of her yoga practice to unwind and understand her inner struggles. As she finds herself on the mat, her problems don’t go away, but her perspective about them shifts.
Similar to Places We Left Behind, Landed is experimental in its use of form. Readers will be introduced to concepts in Hebrew and French, and find thought bubbles, crossed out sentences and playful vignettes. The chapters are short and show brief moments of life through fragments of scenes. Because the book is in non-linear bite-sized portions that appear from different decades, readers get a sense of the major milestones of Lang’s marriage, immigration, and family life. As a result, we also feel the shift when her attitude towards the world around her changes. She leans into the moments of unity that she experiences from Israel’s shared history of communal loss. She realizes life in her adopted country is similar to how her Arab Israeli student describes yoga:, “beautiful but hard.”
Lang’s original manuscript predates the Hamas massacre of Israelis on October 7th, and other than the occasional editorial note and the preface of the book, written in January 2024, the memoir reads as a compelling time capsule regarding her experience of living in Israel prior to the current war. Reading about the threatening events she mentions is at times haunting and feels like unintentional foreshadowing. I yearn to know more about how Lang’s perspective has changed over this past year and hope she will consider a future book about how her family and community have processed the horrific events that have taken place. In a recent interview she expressed a desire that I share: “I want to witness true peace in this small stretch of land during my lifetime. Peace for all people. Just a little peace.”
NONFICTION
Landed: A yogi’s memoir in pieces & poses
By Jennifer Lang
Vine Leaves Press
Published October 15, 2024
