"Traveling from Arkansas to Alaska, from blowouts where even the photographer wears Prada to modest services that bring out the best in both celebrant and guests, Mark Oppenheimer explores an age-old ritual that still hums with life. Though this accomplished young journalist approaches his subject with humor and skepticism, it moves him--and through his well-chosen words, we are moved as well." --Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down "Mark Oppenheimer has written a large-hearted, absorbing investigation into the varieties of the American Jewish experience as seen through the lens of that beleaguered but mysteriously resilient ritual, the bar mitzvah." --Jonathan Rosen, author of Joy Comes in the Morning "Mark Oppenheimer brings a journalist's penchant for the absurd and a theologian's sense of wonder to a ritual all too easily reduced to kitsch, and shows us how much life and meaning it has in it yet. Anyone who hopes to find authenticity underneath the banality of much mainstream religious practice will be encouraged by this book." --Judith Shulevitz, New York Times book columnist and author of the forthcoming book Sabbath.