Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir
Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir book cover

Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir

Hardcover – October 4, 2007

by
Price
$19.38
Format
Hardcover
Pages
320
Publisher
Riverhead Hardcover
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1594489556
Dimensions
5.46 x 1.13 x 8.3 inches
Weight
13.6 ounces

Description

From Publishers Weekly Auslander, a magazine writer, describes his Orthodox Jewish upbringing as theological abuse in this sardonic, twitchy memoir that waits for the other shoe to drop from on high. The title refers to his agitation over whether to circumcise his soon to be born son, yet another Jewish ritual stirring confusion and fear in his soul. Flitting haphazardly between expectant-father neuroses in Woodstock, N.Y., and childhood neuroses in Monsey, N.Y., Auslander labors mightily to channel Philip Roth with cutting, comically anxious spiels lamenting his claustrophobic house, off-kilter family and the temptations of all things nonkosher, from shiksas to Slim Jims. The irony of his name, Shalom (Hebrew for peace), isn't lost on him, a tormented soul gripped with dread, fending off an alcoholic, abusive father while imagining his heavenly one as a menacing, mocking, inescapable presence. Fond of tormenting himself with worst-case scenarios, he concludes, That would be so God. Like Roth's Portnoy, he commits minor acts of rebellion and awaits his punishment with youthful literal-mindedness. But this memoir is too wonky to engage the reader's sympathy or cut free Auslander's persona from the swath of stereotype—and he can't sublimate his rage into the cultural mischief that brightens Roth's oeuvre. That said, a surprisingly poignant ending awaits readers. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Bookmarks Magazine Shalom Auslander, author of Beware of God: Stories (2005) and a contributor to This American Life , reveals his ambivalence about God through fear, black humor, and undirected anger. If Foreskinâx80x99s Lament sounds like a terrible rage against God, it is, in parts, but it coalesces into a fascinating reflection on the role of faith and ritual in modern life. Most reviewers found Auslanderâx80x99s stories about his tormented life refreshing, moving, and humorousâx80"for example, the story of his father building an ark for the synagogue, only to be ostracized, struck a high note. However, a few criticized Auslanderâx80x99s tendency to mask real anger and deep questions with comedy. Beneath the humor, however, lies a reflective memoir on religionâx80x99s powerful holdâx80"and why, sometimes, itâx80x99s so hard to shake it off. Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. Shalom Auslander writes like Philip Roth's angry nephew. Foreskin's Lament is a scathing theological rant, a funny, oddly moving coming-of-age memoir, and an irreverent meditation on family, marriage, and cultural identity. God may be a bit irritated by this book, but I loved it. -- Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher Shalom Auslander ���was raised in Monsey, New York. Nominated for the Koret Award for writers under thirty-five, he has published articles in��� Esquire ,��� The New York Times Magazine ,��� Tablet ,��� The New Yorker , and has had stories aired on NPR's��� This American Life . Auslander is the author of the novel Hope: A Tragedy , the short story collection��� Beware of God ,���and the memoir��� Foreskin's Lament . He lives in New York. To learn more about Shalom Auslander, please visit www.shalomauslander.com. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • An intimate account of the author's youth in a strict Orthodox community describes his dysfunctional family's vengeful personification of God, his exile to reform school after a childhood misdemeanor, and his efforts to make sense of his religious beliefs while connecting with the outside world. 30,000 first printing.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(180)
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(150)
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(90)
★★
7%
(42)
★
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(139)

Most Helpful Reviews

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What a read

This is one of the most disturbing books I have read in a long time. That is not a bad thing. I wonder if I would have the gumption to bare my life and my soul the way Mr. Auslander has in this story. He spares no detail. In fact, it is more of a personal exegesis than a story. Although it focuses on the idiosyncrasies of growing up in an orthodox Jewish environment, what he says is applicable to any similar theologically literal upbringing. I know Catholics who could tell similar stories, and some fringe evangelical Christians too. I recommend this book. It is unforgettable.
13 people found this helpful
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A darkly humorous memoir. Did I mention dark?

"Wow - they really did a number on you."

It's a line Auslander's wife and mine both say with a frightening regularity. Perhaps that's why I immediately resonated with this book, despite my lack of Orthodox Jew-ness, growing up in a completely different environment (West Virginia instead of New York) and other massive differences.

Then again, I was raised Catholic and have worn a Flying Spaghetti Monster T-shirt to Mass. Under a sweater, just in case someone (human or divine) noticed and decided to strike me down.

The humor I found was not the humor of slapstick or manners. It is the humor of deep, dark irony. It's the wry smile as the last thing that could go wrong *does* go wrong.

This is a darkly humorous book, and painfully honest. The zingers are real - but they apply to you more than you think.

You can either laugh or cry.

One thing is for sure.

God is laughing. Even if He doesn't exist.
10 people found this helpful
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A Very Sad Rant Against God

Auslander grew up an ultra Orthodox Jew In Monsey, New York. This memoir is his rant against the strict rules of his religious faith. But most of all it is a rant against the vengeful, fear inducing God with whom he is raised. Auslander's rebellion includes the eating of 'traif', non-kosher food. The first time he eats a Slim Jim, purchased at a heignborhood community pool, he pukes into a garbage can. This doesn't stop his venture into the world of 'traif'. He indulges in Big Macs with milk shakes, pizza with pepperoni, forbidden marshmallows made with gelatin (a pork by-product). Will his marshmallow feast result in the death of his sister? He looks at porno magazines and wonders if this is enough to kill his father by being hit by a car. In essence Auslander thinks he is a very powerful fellow in God's eyes, as his Heavenly Father is sure to punish he or his family every time he violates one of the 613 Commandments by which Orthodox Jews live their lives. It seems as if God has nothing better to do in this world of poverty, disease and war than to watch over the doings of Auslander. This is hubris on a cosmic scale.

This rant can be hilarious at times. His description of his Yeshiva's Blessing Bee made me laugh out loud. But 300 plus pages of rant begins to wear thin. Leaving the Orthodox faith and his family, he finds himself a father obsessing over whether to circumcize his soon to be son. This is the Foreskin's Lament.

One doesn't have to be a trained psychologist to figure out Auslander's hatred of his Heavenly Father is related to his hatred of his drunk and physically abusive father. But instead of coming to a resolution of this with his $350 per hour shrink, he rails against the 'theological' abuse of God. The destruction of his familial relationships deeply saddens me. Similiarly it is implied that Auslander's wife, Orli, is similiarly estranged from her family but this is glossed over in the book.

There is much that is worthwhile here. Auslander is a Philip Roth on speed. I just hope he comes to terms with his rage. Otherwise every book this talented author will write will be poisoned by his continued rant.
9 people found this helpful
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Still in the "thrall."

A comical read and a tragic one; yet thoroughly enjoyable! Like "Beware of God" it gives insight into the internal workings and mind-set of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community. But more generally, it mirrors the internal brain-washing and mind-shackeling that goes into forming any exclusionary group; be it a sub-sect theology of Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, Christian, Mormon, etc., etc.. Poor Shalom has outwardly wrested himself from the all-encompassing group and its myriad of rules. But God still has a firm grip on part of Shalom's soul, making him miserable still. He still argues with Him, takes Him to task and wrestles with Him like any God-fearing Talmudic scholar. That's the book's tragic undercurrent.
7 people found this helpful
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Brilliantly poignant and laugh-out-loud funny

This book is not anti-religion; it's religion as seen by a very gifted child. His trials, tribulations and incessant worries are both sad and hilarious.

A must-read.
7 people found this helpful
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The humor of Orthodoxy Rejected (but carefully)

Shalom Auslander ("Peaceful Outsider") writes and amazingly amusing book about his orthodox upbringing and his rejection of this training, but hesitates in offending the "God" that he rejects. I expect that I enjoyed it more because I shared a Jewish upbringing, but I also expect many raised in a deeply fundamental environment who have consciously "strayed" since then might also share some of the amusement and uncertainty so amusingly described by Mister Auslander.
6 people found this helpful
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An author finds closure with God through his memoir

Shalom Auslander's memoir is the story of his relationship with the Hebrew God ("an abusive, belligerent god, a god who awoke millennia ago on the wrong side of the firmament and still hasn't cheered up''), a volatile, drunken Orthodox father, and a fastidious, strictly observant mother. Auslander rebelled against the social isolation and repression of his given community, and he draws off his fierce anger to write a witty, cuttingly sardonic memoir. His lessons are not uniquely Jewish; rather, his story will resonate with those familiar with fundamentalists of all kinds.
5 people found this helpful
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Take That God

This book is an uproariously hilarious memoir that shows a truly common feeling of people, especially children with respect to the restrictions of orthodox Jewry on how one should live their life. The various sins that one should not commit are highlighted in terms of Kosher dietary laws, working and other activities not allowed on the Sabbath and desecration of the body.

Auslander truly captures the feeling of people who are subjected to all these conditions from birth and how they resent them and then how they resent God himself. Guilt plays a large part in the life of Jews and the lifestyle they should lead. How this guilt is imposed on Jews and how they are made to feel responsible for the entire Jewish populace through their actions and life styles is showcased in this text.

Without any doubt, this book is the best depiction of the feelings of the absurdity that young Jews experience as they are forced or at least feel forced to abide by with the peer and parental pressures that are put upon them. For a very much lighter side look at this practice, this book is very highly recommended and very wonderful to read. All readers interested in comparative religion should give this book serious consideration on their reading list.
4 people found this helpful
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For a skin lame not it is

After a furious start with incredible mixes of bold and subtle humor, occasionally bordering on the almost tasteless - but only almost - the book in its middle piece somewhat loses its momentum to peter out towards the end in a lament over an almost unruly adolescence.

Auslander made me remember those irritations about God: is He a merciful and loving God or a cruel and vengeful father? The author's dialogues - or rather monologues - with God are brilliant in their straightforwardness and .in taking His word serious - and literal. They reminded me of my strict upbringing and evoked the bewilderment about all these contradictions of a God of mercy and revenge. He wonderfully describes an intelligent, curious - and frightened boy.

Auslaender wrote this as his biography -maybe a bit early for a man his age. A lack of distance to those years following the childhood somewhat darkens the brilliant start. He gets lost in a review of his adolescent, moderately rebellious years and the career as a (reasonably successful) shoplifter and dope smoker. Less would have been more here.

The story of his "relationship" with God during the time he spends in Israel is most disappointing. While his reflections on his early childhood are humorous and full of insights and clarity, they turn infantile and murky once he describes his stay there. As he writes notes to be stuck into the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem as messages for God, his lament truly becomes silly. It reads as if not even he himself had written that.

Auslander rekindles the initial fire in the last part of the book in his musing over whether he should circumcise his son, but it does not make up for the center section of the book.

Yet, I would still say: go for it! For a skin, pretty good!
4 people found this helpful
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"My family and me are like oil and water, if oil made water depressed and angry and want to kill itself..."

Interestingly the first thing I noticed about memoirist Shalom Auslander was his name: "Shalom" means "peace" in Hebrew, while "Auslander" means "foreigner" in German. His story is just as unusual. Raised in New York in an Orthodox Jewish family, Auslander rebels against the lifestyle early on. Not only does he choose to defy church custom by the foods and food combinations he chooses to eat, but also he steals and pretty much acts in almost constant defiance of his family's religious and cultural beliefs. His parents' behavior, many times in conflict with what one might expect, complicates things even more. It's in preparation for the birth of his first child that he feels the titled "lament," the results of which I won't spoil by sharing. As mentioned in one of the blurbs about the book, Auslander's honest, funny style and sometimes R-rated humor is a bit reminiscent of David Sedaris, whose book Me Talk Pretty One Day I found laugh out loud funny. He also sheds a lot of light, though quite unconventionally, on some of the customs and beliefs of Orthodox Jews. Although often over the top, R-rated in content, and certain to offend Orthodox Jews (especially his family), Foreskin's Lament is a memoir full of bad boyhood behavior that readers won't soon forget. Also good: Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, The Summer of Ordinary Ways by Nicole Lea Helget, and Me Talk Pretty Some Day by David Sedaris.
3 people found this helpful

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