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Unorthodox

By: Deborah Feldman
Narrated by: Rachel Botchan,Cassandra Campbell
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Publisher's Summary

Called “brave and riveting” by Jeannette Walls, Deborah Feldman’s New York Times best-selling memoir of escaping from a strict Hasidic community includes a new afterword by the author as well as the epilogues from the original 2012 editions detailing the circumstances of her life after leaving her husband and forging new beginnings for herself and her young son.

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 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 19 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.

©2012 Deborah Feldman (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio

What listeners say about Unorthodox

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Debra Feldman's true life story

This is the novel on which the popular netflix mini series was based. More detail than the former.

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3 people found this helpful

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Best book I have read all year!

Without a doubt the most incredible book I have read. Such an amazing story, well written and providing insight into a world very few would know about.

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A very good book

I would highly recommend book.. Having watched the series, there is little the same in the book. However as a book it’s very interesting and total eye opener to a world that we would otherwise know nothing about.. it really shows the brain washing and the oppressive nature towards women and children. I wonder how this has been allowed to carry on.

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Fascinating story.

Extremely well-written and thought provoking recount of life and subsequent escape from the Hasidic community of Williamsburg.

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Meanders too much

Really struggled to finish this one. I kept thinking "maybe in the next chapter something will happen?" and two thirds in and I was still waiting. The entire premise of the book is her ultimately leaving her religion, and instead it focuses on childhood and teenage memories of regular uneventful days, for hours and hours. Also the chapters are way too long. I wouldn't recommend this book at all.

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excellent listen

different from the way the netflix series went, but now I want to re-watch it. excellent listen. very thoughtful and heartfelt.

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What a compelling story

Initially I found the writing overly detailed, but kept on with it as I wanted to know about the hasidic community. I adjusted to her writing style and ended up getting sucked in, taking her journey, fraught with claustrophobia at having to submit to so many, to my mind, anachronistic, misogynistic rules. It is at turns, tragic, alarming, frustrating, terrible and liberating. It will stay with me. Quite a ride.

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Wonderful journey of a girl finding herself

A wonderful story, told by the girl herself, about her conflicting journey to find herself outside of what she was born into, and what she was raised to do all her life.

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Powerful

This is such a powerful and emotional story. Engaging and raw, Unorthodox is a must read.

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I didn't finish

This book may well interest many. It is beautifully narrated but the subject could not my interest.
Some of the names and words are better read with eyes than ears.

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