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A review by zhelana
Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home by Leah Lax
4.0
At first I was worried I wouldn't like this book because the author wasn't born a hasid. It is something she chose for herself when she was a teenager. When she left the hasidic fold, she would still have parents who loved her, and family and friends to fall onto. Throughout the book, however, she describes trying so hard to fit in with the hasidim and then her father dying, and her strained relationship with everyone from her past.
It was still a little anticlimactic when she decides, after 27 years, to return to her mother and her cello and her writing. She has to start again learning the cello, but her experience of it matures, also.
Overall this is the story of a teenage rebel who got caught up in extremism, and stayed there for far too long, and I don't think Leah has much to teach us about how to get others to give up extremism. After all, we can't convince all the Saudis to become gay. But it is a powerful story about one woman's experience with extremist religion and finally, finally, after 27 years, her coming of age and becoming an adult in our society.
It was still a little anticlimactic when she decides, after 27 years, to return to her mother and her cello and her writing. She has to start again learning the cello, but her experience of it matures, also.
Overall this is the story of a teenage rebel who got caught up in extremism, and stayed there for far too long, and I don't think Leah has much to teach us about how to get others to give up extremism. After all, we can't convince all the Saudis to become gay. But it is a powerful story about one woman's experience with extremist religion and finally, finally, after 27 years, her coming of age and becoming an adult in our society.