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she_reads_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
neronoire's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
hannahreynoso's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
avasisx's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting book. I didn't know what a Hasidic jew was before this so in my head it was just unbelievable and far fetched, it's hard to believe this is real, and yet it is. Super insightful and inspiring
gabrielanotmoura's review against another edition
5.0
This was raw, heartbreaking but gave a happy ending that is rare in these situations. Beautifully written.
literarycrushes's review against another edition
4.0
Unorthodox, Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir, tells the story of her brave decision to turn away from everyone & everything she knew in order to find freedom. This book had been on my list for years and it did not disappoint. I was broadly unaware of the Hasidic community despite having passed through the few blocks of South Williamsburg that they inhabit hundreds of times. I was fascinated as I think many are, about how it was possible that this tiny community was able to section themselves off and exist so separately from the modern world. And right in the middle of Brooklyn!
Feldman’s story offers an unflinching account of how poorly she (and women in general) is treated as lesser than human in the name of religious tradition. Her own family life is somewhat irregular – she was raised by her grandparents after her mother was kicked out for being gay and her father was unfit to care for her due to a mental illness that goes largely unacknowledged and untreated within the community. At seventeen, she is set up (by a matchmaker) to be married to a boy she has never met. She hopes to find independence in her married life, but instead goes through a number of humiliating and very public trials as she and her husband are physically unable to consummate their marriage. Throughout her upbringing, she manages to find ways to explore different worlds through the books she smuggles from a faraway branch of the public library (English is thought to be poison to the soul and girls shouldn’t read anyway).
Though Feldman was traumatized by and ultimately rejects her upbringing she has a great empathy for her experience. Her story is heartbreaking and empowering. I wish there had been more focus on her actual experience of leaving, as the entire book was spent describing her life inside the community and then she basically stuffs her final decision into the last four pages. But I am excited to watch the Netflix adaptation, which judging by the trailer, appears to use the ending as a jumping off point before following Feldman into the new life she forges for herself in Berlin.
Feldman’s story offers an unflinching account of how poorly she (and women in general) is treated as lesser than human in the name of religious tradition. Her own family life is somewhat irregular – she was raised by her grandparents after her mother was kicked out for being gay and her father was unfit to care for her due to a mental illness that goes largely unacknowledged and untreated within the community. At seventeen, she is set up (by a matchmaker) to be married to a boy she has never met. She hopes to find independence in her married life, but instead goes through a number of humiliating and very public trials as she and her husband are physically unable to consummate their marriage. Throughout her upbringing, she manages to find ways to explore different worlds through the books she smuggles from a faraway branch of the public library (English is thought to be poison to the soul and girls shouldn’t read anyway).
Though Feldman was traumatized by and ultimately rejects her upbringing she has a great empathy for her experience. Her story is heartbreaking and empowering. I wish there had been more focus on her actual experience of leaving, as the entire book was spent describing her life inside the community and then she basically stuffs her final decision into the last four pages. But I am excited to watch the Netflix adaptation, which judging by the trailer, appears to use the ending as a jumping off point before following Feldman into the new life she forges for herself in Berlin.
barnesbookshelf's review against another edition
4.0
This is another book that I would love a sequel to. Its been over 10 years since originally published, and I would love to know what Feldman's journey has looked like in those years.
I found this book triggered a lot of emotional responses from me. Frequently I got angry about the misogynistic abuses Feldman endured. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a different time and different culture, but I still struggled. Part of the reason I was eager to keep reading was because I knew she escaped the toxic environment she had grown up in. When she finally left, I felt her joy at freedom. I hope she is doing well.
I found this book triggered a lot of emotional responses from me. Frequently I got angry about the misogynistic abuses Feldman endured. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a different time and different culture, but I still struggled. Part of the reason I was eager to keep reading was because I knew she escaped the toxic environment she had grown up in. When she finally left, I felt her joy at freedom. I hope she is doing well.
vespertillio's review against another edition
2.0
I often really enjoy memoirs but this one did nothing for me. At times I felt like I was reading fiction and I felt no connection to her story as if it was really HER story.
wanderingmole's review against another edition
4.0
This book was an extraordinary insight into a particular community. It offered decadent detail into a foreign way of life, all the while highlighting issues of power, fear-based rule-making, freedom, agency, self-expression, and generational trauma which, evidently, transcend far beyond the Hacidic community.