Exodus Deborah Feldman



Exodus by Deborah Feldman

  1. Exodus A Memoir Deborah Feldman
  2. Memoir Unorthodox
  3. Exodus Deborah Feldman Review

In this follow-up to her New York Times–best-selling memoir Unorthodox (2012), Feldman positions herself as the quintessential wandering Jew. Exodus tells the story of Feldman’s journey of self-discovery, which takes her from the American South to the Jewish ghettos of Old World Europe. Feldman's (Unorthodox) second memoir examines her life after leaving the Hasidic community in which she was raised. After settling in New England with her six-year-old son, Isaac, she begins a.

New York : Blue Rider Press 2014

Did deborah feldman remarryMemoir unorthodox

ISBN-13: 9780399162770 : Hardcover 289 pgs. $26.95

Annotation: Twenty-something Deborah Feldman resumes narrating her story following separation from the Satmar Hasidic community of Brooklyn, NewYork where she was raised and married.

Summary: Readers of Feldman’s first memoir, Exodus, will thrill to the next installment of her journey forward after separating from the Satmar Hasidic community in Brooklyn, New York during 2009. Now twenty-eight years old, Feldman updates readers about the five years during which she and son, Isaac, relocated to the New England countryside. Always candid and straight-forward, Feldman discusses her graduation from Sarah Lawrence College, furthering her writing career, and discovering her sexuality. Though she is no longer Orthodox, Feldman grapples making peace with her Jewishness by tracing her grandmother’s movements in Europe during the Holocaust.

Evaluation: I thoroughly engaged with Feldman’s memoir. I find her story fascinating and her honesty refreshing. I have suggested her books numerous times at the library. I may not always share in or agree with her observations, but her detailed, first-hand observations living as part of the Satmar Hasidic community in Brooklyn makes for compelling reading. This title has broad appeal especially for readers that are interested in learning about other religious faiths.

Author’s Website: http://www.deborahfeldman.com

Reviews- NoveList PERMALINK:

Ratings: I give this title 4.5 out of 5 possible stars because of its candor and compelling prose.

Genre: Memoir and biography. Inspirational, religious non-fiction.

Appeal Factors:

This memoir is character-driven.

Feldman’s story proceeds at a leisurely pace.

The tone of the memoir is both bittersweet and sober, explicit, impassioned, and in the end, hopeful!

Feldman’s writing style is conversational, candid, and compelling.

Booktalking Ideas

Original Book Discussion Questions:

Exodus A Memoir Deborah Feldman

  1. Discuss Feldman’s motivations moving to the New England countryside with her son, Isaac.
  2. Discuss Feldman’s connection with her emerging sexuality. What do you think about her choices as a newly single young woman?
  3. Feldman explores her Jewishness by tracing her grandmother’s movements in Europe during the Holocaust. Discuss her motivations making this trip. Do you think Feldman has succeeded brokering a kind of peace with her Jewishness after making the trip? Why/why not?
  4. There is little mention of Feldman’s ex-husband or their co-parenting arrangements. Why do you suppose the author has not addressed this relationship in the book?
  5. Feldman describes her struggle with insomnia. What are your thoughts about Feldman’s visits with the New England shaman for him to asses her chakras to determine where her energy is blocked? Is this a kind of mumbo-jumbo or a valid treatment protocol?

Read-alikes:

Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman

Exodus Deborah Feldman

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Tags: Jewish Orthodoxy, Brooklyn, Hasidim, Hasidic, Jews, Jewish women, women writers, arranged marriage

Feldman's (Unorthodox) second memoir examines her life after leaving the Hasidic community in which she was raised. After settling in New England with her six-year-old son, Isaac, she begins a search for personal history and identity. This personal journey is also a physical one as Feldman sets off on many excursions. She takes Isaac to Cordoba, Spain, where she is horrified to learn that are only 10 Jews left in the city. Feldman travels to Hungary where her grandmother, a holocaust survivor, was born, in the search for 'something along the lines of closure.' Her adventures are presented out of chronological order—a choice that makes the story confusing—and include France, Austria, Germany, and a cross-country drive. Her most intriguing explorations are often the domestic ones. While visiting a Sarah Lawrence classmate in the Southwest, for example, Feldman meets her first 'authentic Republican' and takes her first bite of shrimp in front of an eager audience. In New Orleans she falls in love with Conor, a 'redneck with a shotgun collection.' Her most surprising love affair is with Markus, whom she first encounters online and meets in-person in Germany. Markus, descended from Nazis, admits that '[h]is grandmother had boasted about kissing Hitler's hand.' Feldman richly describes her triumph following her 'escape' from a restrictive way of life. Agent: Patricia van der Leun, The Patricia van der Leun Literary Agency. (Mar.)
Reviewed on: 03/24/2014
Release date: 03/25/2014
Genre: Nonfiction

Memoir Unorthodox

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Exodus Deborah Feldman Review

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