Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir
by Shalom Auslander
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Book Summary Information
Author: Shalom AuslanderEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2007-10-04
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Book Reviews of Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir
Book Review: A Sad, Sad Story Told With Humor
Summary: 4 Stars
The jacket copy of Shalom Auslander's memoir cautions readers not to eat while reading, lest food be expelled through the nose while laughing hysterically. I did laugh out loud numerous times (without food), because Auslander is an absolute master of irony. But at its heart this is not a funny book. It is an exceedingly sad tale of the brainwashing effects of fundamentalist dogma (of any religion--Auslander's just happens to have been Ultra-Orthodox Judaism) on the minds of very young children. When I finished the last page, I had a strong desire to drive two hours west of my current home to the small town where I lived until age nine and to kiss the ground in front of the Roman Catholic Church where I had my earliest religious education. Not because pre-Vatican II Catholicism was less dogmatic than Auslander's childhood Judaism, but because there was no Catholic school attached to that church. Make no mistake, Catholic dogma "got me" because I was enrolled in Catholic school in the middle of fourth grade faster than you can say "Jesus Christ" after my family moved to New Jersey. And it took years of being a "lapsed Catholic," several of them spent in Jungian therapy, membership in a Hermetical Magical circle, and a profound conversion to another faith before I rid my brain of childhood sureties. Sureties like: only Catholics go to heaven, eternal damnation awaites those who skip mass on Sunday, leave the "one, true church," etc., etc. But rid my brain I did, thanks to the fact that it didn't get the industrial-strength washing five days a week that Auslander's did when I was five, six, seven and eight. No less a personage than the famous Jesuit, Thomas Aquinas, is quoted as saying, "Give me a child until the age of seven, and I've got him for life." So my "Catholic light" religious training until age nine, plus all my adult deprogramming, enabled me to finally shed belief in the bearded sky-god who keeps human beings in line through fear. Shalom Auslander was not so fortunate. I gave his hard-to-put-down memoir four stars instead of five because there is no arc of growth in his story. No lessons learned; no revelation of a silver lining in his stormy cloud. Well into adulthood, Auslander is as bitter, resentful and filled with rage as he was as a teen at the religion which convinces him still that its god is going to get him for every transgression from its dogma. At this memoir's end, I was convinced that Auslander is going to his grave as bitter, resentful, enraged (and funny) as he is today. Enjoy the laugh-out-loud irony in his sad story. And don't eat while you read.
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