Unorthodox
UNORTHODOX is the memoir of a young woman raised in the Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, an ultra-conservative group living in Brooklyn. Feldman is gifted; she plunges the reader into a cult-like world and makes us desperate for air. The book's strengths--its suspense; the reader's need to see our beloved author escape--are also its weaknesses. Without a reflective narrator--indeed, without distance from these events to reflect--the story lacks insight.
I'm reluctant to call this a spiritual memoir since some of the book's central questions remain unanswered. What will be the author's relationship with God outside of her religion? What will her relationship to her body and to sexuality look like? What, after all, does freedom mean? These are the hazards of writing the story of your childhood when you're in your 20s--no perspective.
Nonetheless, as a story of escaping an oppressive faith tradition, UNORTHODOX is powerful. Many thanks to Feldman for this brave tale.
I'm reluctant to call this a spiritual memoir since some of the book's central questions remain unanswered. What will be the author's relationship with God outside of her religion? What will her relationship to her body and to sexuality look like? What, after all, does freedom mean? These are the hazards of writing the story of your childhood when you're in your 20s--no perspective.
Nonetheless, as a story of escaping an oppressive faith tradition, UNORTHODOX is powerful. Many thanks to Feldman for this brave tale.
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