Peppered with mordant humor, Auslander's memoir of growing up Ultra Orthodox was a very enjoyable read ( )

It's been a while that I've read a book as funny and as theologically poignant as Auslander's memoir; oftentimes the two are one and the same. It's equal parts coming of age (emphasis on the coming) and insight into the world of Orthodox Judaism as it's known in these United of States. A young boy made uncomfortable in his own skin thanks to the many malevolent incongruities found in one's observance of G-d. A young man tempted at every turn to push Him to His limits, seeing just how long he can call Him a prick before He strikes back with a vengeance. A husband and father afraid that any moment will be the time that He decides to cash in on years of disobedience and strike down the wife and child held dearest amongst all of life's living. At any point in this memoir, Auslander is at fervent odds with two fathers--one on Earth and the One in Heaven; each trying to outdo the other in busting young Shalom's balls. No matter how much Auslander tries to cut himself off from both, he finds it impossible to create a sense of Self that isn't based on its relation to the source being cut off from--how can a foreskin identify as a foreskin without acknowledging the penis from which it was separated? This question, alongside many others relating to G-d, family, love, and sexuality, lies at the heart (or should I say groin?) of Foreskin's Lament. ( )

Vale, Dios no dice nada cuando Le hablan, asunto a partir del cual se han escrito pliegos interminables, pero no por eso es menos vengativo y cruel. Lógicamente, el mayor conspirador de la historia actúa en silencio, y de Él no hay manera de escapar, como bien sabe cualquier paranoico de orientación pesimista (alguien que ha entendido la situación y no temería lo peor si no esperase algo mejor). Estamos hablando de Shalom Auslander, educado en la ortodoxia judía, de la cual se desvió primero a través de la pornografía y la comida no kosher, la marihuana, el hurto y la masturbación compulsiva, y luego a través de una vida que podríamos llamar laica.

The author has suffered a close encounter with his own religion and been subjected to a full anal probing. I know a lot of people like this kind of thing, but Auslander has not enjoyed the experience. Not at all.

This is a very funny book. I only read it because I found the title funny, and luckily it’s funny all the way through. But it’s humour and rage mixed. Auslander is seething with rage. It’s quite something to behold. I think he might be quite an intimidating man face to face.

It’s transgressive in itself and rather a voyeuristic experience to take a peek into a stranger’s family. Particularly interesting are the similarities between the author and his father and they ways they cope (or fail to cope) with what has been done to them. Also very interesting for the window he provides into a fundamentalist sect. A couple of times I was put in mind of my mother who had an extremist Catholic upbringing. ( )

Everything I will say about this book has been said. It is brilliant, hilarious, and oh so bitter. I cannot imagine anyone who has had the misfortune to dwell in the land of fundamentalist cults, regardless of their specific source material, will not either unreservedly love or hate this book. As for me, I was raised in a secular Jewish home but against all my early teachings, like Shalom Auslander, I believe in God, and like Shalom Auslander, its a problem for me and I loved every moment of this read.

By happenstance I read this while the overall rate of Covid was going down in NYC but going up in my neighborhood and a few others with large Orthodox populations because many of the Orthodox Jews refuse to wear masks (a Lubavitch group held a mask burning last week, which is ironic given the Nazi imagery.) It was auspicious timing, and provided hours of bitter cackling for me.

Despite hundred of great lines, my favorite (mentioned in my progress comments) is still: "There are roughly 50 million sperms in every ejaculate; that's about nine Holocausts in every wank. I was just hitting puberty when they told me this. or puberty was just hitting me, and I was committing genocide, on average, there or four times a day." ( )