Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

What a great read, I had no knowledge of the strict ways of the Hasisdic Jews so this was an eye opener. The book is nothing like the Netflix series but I feel I appreciated it more reading it after watching the series. I would recommend this book to any reader, it's a quick read and very well laid out.

Great memoir and reflection on a community's relationship to family and control, though I found the prose a little simple and uninspired in places.

Интересный экскурс в особенности традиций ортодоксальной общины.
Сначала меня смутил тот факт, что некоторые люди нашли несостыковки, недосказанность и откровенную ложь в этой биографии. С другой - нельзя точно сказать, не являются ли их нападки попыткой еврейской общины дискредитировать сказанное в книге, чтобы выставить себя в лучшем свете.
В любом случае, автобиография на то и автобиография: мы прежде всего читаем интерпретацию тех событий от лица автора, ещё и в ретроспективе. Даже если она и умолчала про свои реальные отношения с матерью или наличие младшей сестры, у неё был мотив это сделать. Даже если она и придала словам или действиям каких-то людей негативную коннотацию, она их восприняла именно так.

The Hasidic community is trippin', man.

This is a pretty great memoir and I learned a lot. The first half was a little boring though. I don't think this is necessarily the fault of the author, just that she was younger during those years and had less concrete memories to work from. It also ends very abruptly and doesn't really offer a lot of perspective of what happens after she leaves. I think the book should have been written a bit later? But then, she needed the book deal so I dunno.

The ways the Hasidic community repress women and also the men in their communities is atrocious. I'm glad Feldman got out.

I've been interested in this one for a while. It's fascinating and important, and I'm glad it's out there, but I have thoughts. It seems like many reviews are seeing this as a brush to paint all of judaism, and I rarely see reviews behaving the same way when the story is an escape from an extremist sect of Christianity.

DNF at 15%. After reading a few articles that claimed the author took many liberties with her real story, I decided it wasn't worth continuing, especially because the story was just too bleak.

3.5 stars. At some points compelling, but at others slow. Overall, a decent read and an interesting look into someone who doesn't fit in to a very rigid society.

I have a weakness for memoirs about leaving religion, especially ones written by women. This one started slow, but picked up after the marriage. Would've liked way more detail about how she made the decision to leave, but I enjoyed this.

The author is not telling the whole story - shown by internal contradictions, outside sources and reading between the lines. Still, a glimpse into a closed world.