Now a Netflix original series! Unorthodox is the bestselling memoir of a young Jewish woman’s escape from a religious sect, in the tradition of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel and Carolyn Jessop’s Escape, featuring a new epilogue by the author.As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything … of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. Yet in spite of her repressive upbringing, Deborah grew into an independent-minded young woman whose stolen moments reading about the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott helped her to imagine an alternative way of life among the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Trapped as a teenager in a sexually and emotionally dysfunctional marriage to a man she barely knew, the tension between Deborah’s desires and her responsibilities as a good Satmar girl grew more explosive until she gave birth at nineteen and realized that, regardless of the obstacles, she would have to forge a path—for herself and her son—to happiness and freedom.
Remarkable and fascinating, this “sensitive and memorable coming-of-age story” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) is one you won’t be able to put down.
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I would like to thank HLAB and the Netgalley website for allowing me to read this book.
This book inspired a series on Netflix of the same name.
The author, Deborah Feldman, is 19 years old and has a son living in the Satmar Hasidic community. She has always respected what she was taught: what to wear, who to talk to, except that she could not …
The book that inspired the Netflix series. It’s different from the series, and I enjoyed it just as much.
I feel weird using the word “entertaining” but I’m not sure how else to describe this book. It was very interesting to hear her life growing up as a Hasidic woman. I think the author is an engaging writer and I would be interested in reading her other novel.
If you enjoyed the Netflix miniseries I think you’d enjoy this book too. While the show …
Wow. I read this book because I saw that it was going to be a Netflix series and I love to read the books first. It was so interesting!! I had some education on the traditions of the Orthodox Jews, but I learned so much. The author is so honest it was refreshing and it made me really root for her to be able to be her own person in the world. It …
An eye-opening memoir that has recently been made into a Netfix series which I would highly recommend to everyone. With painful honesty the author recounts the story of her growing up in an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and her eventual rejection of not only her religion but community as well. Certain things readers …
In a way, it’s unfortunate that the few accounts of life in ultra-orthodox Jewish communities come from those who have left it and are therefore negative. It would be interesting to read a positive account. But I also wonder how many of those who remain dream of leaving.
Deborah Feldman was brave enough to leave everything she knew, and carve a …
I bought this because of the mini series on Netflix. Pretty good book.
A fascinating look at a world most of us will never know or understand. Compelling, well written, and intriguing, I read compulsively, eager to know the real story, versus the Netflix version. Highly recommend.
Riveting
I bought this book because I was curious about the lifestyle of the Hasidic Jews and thought this would give some information about it. The story is from the viewpoint of a woman who never felt an accepted part of the community she lived in, in addition to her parents being ostracised (or in her mother’s case leaving) the mainstream of the …