Reviews

Exodus: A Memoir by Deborah Feldman

raindrops333's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

5.0

teklagyorgy's review against another edition

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4.0

Az Exodus nem annyira volt könnyű olvasmány számomra, mint az Unortodox. Nagyon vártam, nagyon kíváncsi voltam rá, sok pontban át tudtam érezni Feldman sorait, de összességében valahogy mégsem vagyok maradéktalanul elégedett. Mindezekkel szemben mégis azt mondom, hogy meg tudom őt érteni. Hiszen egy hermetikusan elzárt világban nevelkedett, a saját határait pedig egyedülálló, huszonéves anyaként tudta elkezdeni feszegetni.

Nem utolsó sorban a világnézetünk is egy érdekes dolog. Vannak, akik szerencsések, és a szüleiktől olyan útravalót kaptak, amivel nyitottan és pozitívan tudják szemlélni a világot, ezzel szemben vannak, akiket az utálatra és a kirekesztésre neveltek, amihez iszonyú sokat kell tanulni, hogy változtatni tudj rajta. És vannak, akik semmi ilyesmit nem kaptak, akiknek szintén nehéz eligazodni azon, hogy vajon mi a helyes, mi a helytelen, és egyáltalán hogyan viszonyuljanak az élet dolgaihoz.

Pontosan ezek miatt más az Exodus, mint az Unortodox: itt már nem egy zárt csoport titkairól van szó, hanem egy útkereső fiatal nőről. Érezni azért a regényen, hogy próbálja az Unortodox izgalmait belecsempészni, de itt inkább más kérdések a fontosak. Például hogy hogyan lehet teljesen egyedül új életet kezdeni? Hogyan lehet a kisgyerekkor óta belénk nevelt káros sémákat megváltoztatni? Vagy hogy mennyit számít az akaraterő és a küzdés.

Bővebben: https://www.gyorgytekla.hu/2021/12/deborah-feldman-exodus/

aylincoolcat's review against another edition

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4.0

Ein sehr dicht erzähltes Buch, für das man sich Zeit und einen freien Kopf nehmen sollte.
Sehr selbstreflektiert geschrieben und voller Denkanstöße. Ist wahrscheinlich nicht für jeden etwas, aber wer offen für die Themen Judentum, Identität und Immigration ist, bekommt hier einiges an Informationen, historischen Hintergründen und moralischen sowie philosophischen Fragen an die Hand. Und das alles angereichert durch eine sehr persönliche und berührende Erzählweise, die weder belehrt noch verurteilt.
Sehr bemerkenswert.

anika_tpwk's review against another edition

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4.0

Überbitten/Exodus is the second memoir of Deborah Feldman. I read the German version which includes the seven years after she has escaped the orthodox Jewish community she’s described in her first book (which I haven’t yet read). I personally really liked this book. It centers around identity, finding an access to her religion by visiting several places in Europe and the US, about language (which she uses in a brilliant way to create images that really reinforce the meaning) and finally settling in Berlin and dealing with the holocaust (shoa) and the still heavy presence of nazis in Berlin/Germany.
As I myself am German I find that there is a responsibility and I think it’s always helpful to look at perspectives like Deborah’s. It creates an awareness that you wouldn’t find out about otherwise but it’s still so important.
For me it has been a thoroughly interesting read and I highly recommend it because for me it has brought many new facets to light.

mellabella's review against another edition

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3.0

The thing I like most about Unorthodox and Exodus is Deborah Feldman discovering herself. In Exodus, I liked reading about her retracing her grandmothers history. Her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. Tracing her grandmother roots is her way of understanding herself more. Those were the most interesting moments of the book for me. Other than that... Eh. Someone recently told me they thought Unorthodox was not written very well. I enjoyed it so much, I overlooked it. I now think the same thing about Exodus. It was almost written like a teenage girls journal. Which, isn't such a horrible thing. I guess. All in all I think Deborah Feldman is an interesting person. She has a unique story to tell. I just hope the next book does a better job at telling it.

veefuller's review against another edition

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emotional reflective

3.75

A story of resilience. 

annagreta_'s review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25

zhelana's review against another edition

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4.0

The continuation of Deborah's story is just as interesting as the first installment. One wonders where she gets enough money to do this. Perhaps being a best selling author pays really well. But she's off to Europe several times to trace her grandmother's history, and to go on a holocaust tour to try to discover who she is as a Jew in the world without being a hasidic jew anymore. Then she starts travelling to New Orleans for weekends to see a boy. Sooner or later, I guess, she'll have to get a real job, but who knows?

gorskaya's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

mlindsey441's review against another edition

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2.0

I am a little surprised at myself that I picked this one up. I was not a huge fan of Unorthodox, but for some reason I felt drawn to read the next chapter in Feldman's story. There are a few chapters, especially in the beginning that were interesting, probably because I was legitimately curious about her story. But as I read on, she became, once again, so obsessed with her sex life and sexual fulfillment that I felt like I was on the verge of reading some steamy romance novel. Well, maybe it wasn't that bad -- but the fear that I would stumble into a view of her bedroom that I really didn't want to see made the book painful to read. But really -- I was so over her sexual exploits after the first page. And I lost interest in her vagina in the first book. Once again, it felt like she had little sense of who her audience really would be. This is a great journal for her, but really never should have been published for a wide audience.

The saving grace for this book, for me, or at least the only reason I gave this any stars at all is the section where she searches for her grandmother's history. This section gave some depth to Feldman and made her a more likable person. The first 3rd of the book had me thinking that her writing had improved, that her story was moving beyond herself in her struggle to move past the pain.

Ultimately, I think this book, like the first one, is too near the pain of her upbringing and divorce. She will continue to grow over the years and most likely write more books. And I will probably keep coming back to the train wreck found in these books because now I want to know if she will ever gain a sense that there is world out there beyond herself who is actually reading these books.