About Exodus In 2009, having just turned twenty three years old, Deborah Feldman walked away from her insular Hasidic roots. She was determined to forge a better life for herself and her son, away from the rampant oppression, abuse, and isolation of her Satmar upbringing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. More helpful was a YouTube video that can currently be viewed; One to One: Deborah Feldman, Author - 'Exodus'. In this video she tells us that there are some Jewish observances she enjoys and practices, and that she loves to cook for her son like her Bubby who, sadly, is now in a hospice suffering from dementia.
Exodus by Deborah Feldman
New York : Blue Rider Press 2014
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:
Wps office on pc. This memoir is character-driven.
Friday night funkin website game. 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.
Exodus Deborah Feldman Italiano
Booktalking Ideas
Original Book Discussion Questions:
- Discuss Feldman’s motivations moving to the New England countryside with her son, Isaac.
- Discuss Feldman’s connection with her emerging sexuality. What do you think about her choices as a newly single young woman?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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
Irene Nemirovsky: her life and works by Jonathon M. Weiss
Exodus Deborah Feldman Deutsch
Tags: Jewish Orthodoxy, Brooklyn, Hasidim, Hasidic, Jews, Jewish women, women writers, arranged marriage