Foreskin's Lament

by ShalomAuslander (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2009

  $13.29

  Shalom Auslander was raised with a terrified respect for God. Even as he grew up, defying and eventually being cast out of his community, he could not find his way to a life in which he wasn't locked in a daily struggle with Him. Foreskin's Lament is a rich and fascinating portrait of a man grappling with his faith, his family and his community. Bracing and witty ...Never, frankly, can there have been a more blasphemous book ...Foreskin's Lament somehow expresses the ideas of Richard Dawkins in the tone of David Sedaris. You can read it for the humour, you can read it as reportage into a secretive and bizarre world, you can read it as a personal tale of triumph over adversity, or you can just read it for the misery. It doesn't really matter. But do read it' William Sutcliffe, Independent on Sunday One of the funniest books I've ever read, killingly so' Hilary Spurling, Observer Exceptional ...very, very funny' Time Out Painfully poignant and hilariously noir' Jewish Chronicle By turns hilarious and devastating ...Few books are laugh-out-loud funny. This one is' Naomi Alderman, Sunday Times America's hottest, funniest, most controversial young Jewish memoirist ...blackly hilarious, groundbreaking' The Times

• Used

  Hardcover
  2008

  $7.92

  Foreskin's Lament reveals Auslander's youth in a strict, socially isolated Orthodox community, and recounts his rebellion and efforts to make a new life apart from it. Auslander remembers his youthful attempt to win the 'blessing bee' (the Orthodox version of a spelling bee), his exile to reform school in Israel after being caught shoplifting a cassette tape of West Side Story , and his twenty-five-mile hike to watch the New York Rangers play in Madison Square Garden without violating the Sabbath. Throughout, Auslander struggles to understand God and His complicated, often contradictory laws. But ultimately, he settles for a ceasefire with God, accepting the very slim remaining hope that his newborn son might live free of guilt, doubt, and struggle.Auslander's combination of unrelenting humour and anger a voice that compares to those of David Sedaris and Dave Eggers delivers a rich and fascinating self-portrait of a man grappling with his faith, family, and community. Praise for Shalom Auslander : 'There is a serious point to Auslander's fictional games. He wants us to be careful of taking any figure of authority too seriously; God is just the prime example...Its real heroes are literary: writers such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett who use prose to get at something more mysterious and mystical than any religion - our love of and trust in language, to amuse and distract us from death'. - Times Literary Supplement .