Uncovered is the only memoir to tell of a gay woman leaving the hasidic fold. Told in understated, crystalline prose, Leah Lax begins her story as a young teen leaving her secular home to become a hasidic Jew, then plumbs the nuances of her arranged marriage, fundamentalist faith, and hasidic motherhood as, all the while, creative, sexual, and spiritual longings tremble beneath the surface.
In Uncovered, Leah Lax made so beautifully knowable and memorable how the certainty, the all-encompassing nature of Chasidic fundamentalism rescued her from chaos, and like all the choices we make, caused her to sacrifice more than she could know for that temporary shelter. That she could narrate the hope, the devotion, the plateaus of joy and satisfaction even as she described the suppression of doubt and disappointment – both real, and sensory, and lovely in their authenticity was a privilege to witness. I found myself wanting to say I’m sorry for all that Lax went through, but I also understood, was actually grateful, to read at the end of the book that in some sense she wouldn’t have had it another way- that like all our painful paths, when they lead to a more integrated identity-affirming place, that pain had an important role to play. A masterful book.