Saturday, February 25, 2012
Observing "Unorthodox"
I just read a really awesome book, called "Unorthodox," by Deborah Feldman. It was a gripping, insightful, intriguing novel.
It describes how a woman rids herself of the shackles of satmar hasidism. I wont tell you the details of the story, but i like the fact that the auhor is able to find her niche, despite her resentment at her childhood hasidic world.
Even though today she is a liberated, free thinking American woman, she still has a very strong Jewish identity.
A woman in her position and experience, i admire her for still staying connected to her Jewish routes, in her own way.
Take a look:
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I have not read her book but I have read interviews.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes me squirm is how private matters which are applicable to all observant Jewry, like taharas mishpacha, is considered to be an aberration specific to chassidus. Which is how she presented it in interviews, calling it perverted.
Not many other observant Jews are doing a dance by her book. The issue is less to do with chassidus and more to do with her dysfunctional home life.
I am not chassidish but I have relatives who are, and the picture she paints (at least in interviews) flatters no one.
Have you ever read the book "Hush" by Eishes Chayil? That book also portrayed a very primitive, uncivilized look at chasidus. I do believe that her stories are accurate, and they do happen. But what upsets me, is that the books that usually "make it" in the media, are the ones that portray the Judaism that I know, into a similar Shiite sect that i do not recognize.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that her messed up upbringing had a huge effect on her future. I believe if her father would have been mentally competent and her mother would not have left her husband with her daughter, and thereby had her daughter raised by a set of Holocaust survivors, and given a hostile chinuch, she wouldn't have been desperate to flee Williamsburg. I live among Chassidim and i dont know what goes on in their homes, but from my interaction with them i know enough not to generalize "Unorthodox" on all the hasidism.
But every person has their story to tell and he or she can write about the most private matters, which a reader is not forced to read. Deborahj Feldman's writing was very gripping and interesting to read, i enjoyed the book, though i did feel bad that she couldn't find her niche amid the orthodox community.
I haven't read "Hush" - I can't even watch "Law & Order: SVU." I can't bear to read or watch situations where there is sexual abuse. Shiver.
ReplyDeleteI can understand her desire to become an author, but I wish that she didn't have to flagellate a Jewish community to do it. Living in NYC she had plenty of exposure to non-chassidishe Jews; she knows that there are other observant surroundings available if she wanted to broaden her horizons.
Now she has an Irish Catholic boyfriend. Ah well.
I read Hush and it was very moving... it was an expose which did not cast blame on any particular group in any particular time period. It gave cause for anyone who reads it to introspect because the author wrote in a fairly universal context. And the fact that she used a pseudonym further proves that she did not have a personal agenda in writing other than to bring very sensitive, damaging issues to light.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Deborah Feldman seems to be making a career out of defaming a specific community about which the outside world is very curious. It's not right for her to capitalize on this, and the stories she cites have been refuted in many ways. It just does not have a genuine feel of wanting to help. As curious as I am to see what she writes, I refuse to give her any profit for this disgusting cause. Maybe if it makes it to the library one day I'll read it.