Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots
Ratings37
Average rating3.9
I have a weakness for memoirs about leaving religion, especially ones written by women. This one started slow, but picked up after the marriage. Would've liked way more detail about how she made the decision to leave, but I enjoyed this.
I've been interested in this one for a while. It's fascinating and important, and I'm glad it's out there, but I have thoughts. It seems like many reviews are seeing this as a brush to paint all of judaism, and I rarely see reviews behaving the same way when the story is an escape from an extremist sect of Christianity.
The author is not telling the whole story - shown by internal contradictions, outside sources and reading between the lines. Still, a glimpse into a closed world.
The Hasidic community is trippin', man.
This is a pretty great memoir and I learned a lot. The first half was a little boring though. I don't think this is necessarily the fault of the author, just that she was younger during those years and had less concrete memories to work from. It also ends very abruptly and doesn't really offer a lot of perspective of what happens after she leaves. I think the book should have been written a bit later? But then, she needed the book deal so I dunno.
The ways the Hasidic community repress women and also the men in their communities is atrocious. I'm glad Feldman got out.
Great memoir and reflection on a community's relationship to family and control, though I found the prose a little simple and uninspired in places.