Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots is author Deborah Feldman's memoir in which she discusses her life (and perhaps most importantly, repression) in an ultra-religious Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York.
That Jewish community was made up of members of the very insular Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, who mainly spoke Yiddish and shunned most English influences. Members of the community, for example, were restricted in what they wore, what they could read (no books written in English), and who they could speak to (only good people in the community; no outsiders). They also could not receive any kind of sex education - even if they were married.
Feldman writes about how these restrictions affected her. How she used to sneak off to the library to take and read English books (books which were explicitly banned) and how she started to rebel against her repressive religion and community.
Feldman also discusses what she considers to be a barbaric custom within her old community: arranged marriage. Naturally, Feldman had profound experience with arranged marriage: at 17, she was married to a man whom she didn't know and who had no idea how to be married. Much like other arranged marriages, Feldman's marriage was both emotionally and sexually dysfunctional. And to make matters worse, she struggled mightily to produce a child (something that had to be done in her community).
Ultimately, Feldman discusses and details her escape from the Jewish community with her baby and how it is has impacted her life - both in good and bad ways.
