Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection Of My Hasidic Roots (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
An opening caveat: I can't vouch for the accuracy of this book, so I'll just review it as if it were a fictional work about an imaginary Hasidic sect.I generally found Unorthodox to be well-written and interesting to read; I have enough experience with traditional Judaism (though in environments much more "modern" than Satmar) that at least some of the story was more familiar to me than they would be to a secular/non-Jewish reader.The author certainly didn't have a lot of good to say about most of the other characters in her Hasidic environment; then again, she herself comes across as having no really strong positive emotional relationships to anyone other than her grandparents (who fade out of the story as soon as she is married). One of her parents has vanished from the community, another has untreated mental illness. She is married off after one short date, and becomes physically ill shortly thereafter (which poisons her already-wobbly relationship with a husband as immature as she is). She is bright and intellectually curious, but her schools are not particularly interested in promoting secular learning (or particularly rigorous Jewish learning for girls- at least not any that she appears to have absorbed). As a result, she doesn't seem to get any mentoring at school until she goes off to a secular college. No wonder she wants to escape from her environment!I also note that the Jewish prohibition against lashon hara (gossip) doesn't figure at all in her "story". She gossips freely about others- perhaps because the other characters gossip freely about her (or at least she thinks she does).I suspect that the negative tone of this memoir may to some extent be therapy: she only left the Satmar a few years ago, and this book is in part the author's explanation of why she left. Under the circumstances, one can't really expect her to write a balanced discussion of her earlier life. If she was writing a decade or two from now, when the scars of her failed marriage have healed, I suspect she would write a gentler, kinder book. I don't actually know what is a greater waste of my time .. Writing this review or reading Feldman's book. And shame for her that maybe it's because I read a few really worthwhile books before this not-so-great patch that made me dislike her book even more. I understand from the autobiographical side, she has a story she wants to share but someone - a publisher, an editor, someone! should have advised her so her writing didn't come off as an emotional schoolgirl rambling about her daily circumstance without much substance to the words she writes. As someone who is part of an observant community, although not Satmar, the one thing that kept nagging at me was that she was writing this fresh off the experience so there was no space for intellectual reflection on her past; the whole novel was seeped in a purely emotional response. To be very clear, my perspective in no way is meant to judge Feldman's life or her experience with observant Judaism - I wholeheartedly agree that her relationship with Judaism was pretty disastrous. But with any autobiography, it is not the laundry list of experiences that makes for a strong story but the reflections and the analysis of one's experiences that lend to a fascinating piece of work. And this crucial second stage is nowhere to be found in Feldman's book, save for MAYBE the end when she reflects on her new understanding of her mother and her hopes for her son. For her own benefit, i hope she continues writing so that she can reach the point of intellectual reflection on her past.
What do You think about Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection Of My Hasidic Roots (2012)?
It is good information. The writing is good, but the depth is OK.
—ceckogecko
Good story--sad--not very well written but worth a read.
—shadab
Very good book! Was happy with the way it ended!
—Karilyn
really liked this book and I learned a lot too!
—swickera
