^ 'Goodreads review: Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots'.Archived from the original on 13 April 2020. ^ a b 'Publishers Weekly review: Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots'.The New York Jewish Week reported that the book 'spurred a cottage industry devoted to dispelling its inaccuracies'. For a woman with little formal secular education, her writing is eloquent and stirring.' Feldman is reflective, never mincing words, saying exactly how she feels about everything.

Her story, slow at first, invites us into the homes and mindsets of the Satmar people, at times wholesome and warm, and at others lonely, shocking, and disturbing. However, it does provide a window into a world not many of us know about or can fathom. The Jewish Book Council reviewed the book, saying: 'In the Satmar world, what Feldman did was scandalous, but her story didn't provide the drama and intrigue it seemed to have promised. How did she handle such a tough transition, raising a child while attending college at Sarah Lawrence? She spends so much time on the world she left-without much exploration of where she's ended up.' I certainly understood that Feldman wanted more out of life but in the end, I wanted more from her narration. The lopsided book traverses her childhood in painstaking detail, which is often redundant and overwrought. Lisa Bonos of The Washington Post wrote that 'Feldman seems to render this secretive community authentically I only wish she'd spent a bit more time editing herself. Publishers Weekly called the book an 'engaging and at times gripping insight into Brooklyn's Hasidic community'.

After becoming pregnant, she realized she wanted something more for her child, and planned to leave the community. Feldman said she did not have sex education, claimed she was trapped in a sexually and emotionally dysfunctional marriage, and the failure to produce a child dominated her life. The community maintains a code of customs governing everything from what one wears, what is read, and to whom one generally speaks.įeldman's move away from the community started with going to the library and hiding books written in English. Feldman was born into Satmar community in Brooklyn where the primary language is Yiddish.

Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman