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Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Shalom Auslander
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $2.78
You Save: $22.17 (89%)
New (46) Used (29) Collectible (1) from $2.60
Avg. Customer Rating:  50 reviews
Sales Rank: 41620
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 1594489556
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781594489556
ASIN: 1594489556
Publication Date: October 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Shalom Auslander was raised with a terrified respect for God. Even as he grew up and was estranged from his community, his religion and its traditions, he could not find his way to a life where he didn't struggle against God daily.
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 an Orthodox-style reform school in Israel after he's caught shoplifting Union Bay jeans from the mall, and his fourteen 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. He tries to negotiate with God and His representatives-a day of sin-free living for a day of indulgence, a blessing for each profanity. But ultimately, Shalom settles for a peaceful cease-fire, a standoff with God, and accepts the very slim remaining hope that his newborn son might live free of guilt, doubt, and struggle.
Auslander's combination of unrelenting humor and anger--one that draws comparisons to memoirists David Sedaris and Dave Eggers--renders a rich and fascinating portrait of a man grappling with his faith, family, and community.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
interesting September 6, 2008
I found this book very interesting. I think the questions the author asks are important--especially in regard to the unquestioned fantasies so many people hold of a tyrannical father-god. I'm sorry to read other reviews in which the author is so severely castigated, simply for expressing his own experience and view.
Foreskins Lament, or The yeshiva bucher who strayed August 15, 2008
you know those moments in life that are frustratingly awful but then you can laugh when you look back on them? This is Foreskins Lament. Auslander has the ability to look back and see the humour and how great to share it with us.
The curcumcision Dillema is at the beginging and end of this book, and I feel it is more of a construct to make the book into a package and not the heart and story of the book.
I do not know how it is interpreted by those who are far from this story in real life. For me, having gone to a yeshiva, I really sympathized and related and laughed out loud.
I would love to see or hear Ausalnder on a panel togheter with the author of Living the Bible. What a panel that would be!
 As his wife says, they really did a number on him. August 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I wanted to like this book. I heard an interview in which Auslander read the first page or so, and thought it sounded really funny. As someone that grew up in what was, at times, an overbearing religious environment and a semi-dysfunctional home, I was sure I could understand, and laugh along with him.
But my, oh my, Auslander is angry. Very, very angry. And more so than the humor, this is what permeated this book for me. In many places, it completely washed out the humor.
Don't get me wrong, he's a funny man and knows how to turn a phrase for comic effect. There were moments I really, really enjoyed, and even one or two that made me laugh out loud. (Who names their kid peace?)
But I guess I was expecting something more like David Sedaris -- a man who really knows how to make the most of a screwed up and depressing situation.
Foreskin's Lament just left me uncomfortable, and possibly worried about Shalom's blood pressure. You just can't hang on to anger like that, can you?
Suspense: Will he or won't he circumcise his son? July 28, 2008
...and indeed, he keeps you guessing. Well-written, heartbreaking. So amazing how he gets the reader to sympathize with his abusive father. I just have one critique, which is why I gave it four stars: How could someone raised ultra-Orthodox not know that a medical circumcision is "not kosher"? He participated in Blessing Bees, he can recite all 40 of the Forbidden Sabbath Activities, yet he doesn't realize that a circumcision is a ritual, complete with a *mohel* and blessings? C'mon...Sounds like selective amnesia to me, although who could blame him?
 Very Funny July 11, 2008
Auslander is incredibly funny in his "memoir". I originally came across him in a GQ article and had to read his other material. He provided some great points about God and "theological Abuse" in this book. His negative & nonstop thoughts are both hilarious and very universal. He is in constant fear of an angry God and his idiotic rambles and stupid stunts are only fodder for a great story.
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