Product Description

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26900 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 310 pages

About the Author

Shalom Auslander's short story collection, Beware of God, was published by Picador in 2005. He lives in New York.

Customer Reviews

A wisecracking Dave Pelzer
Like most books billed as hilariously funny, "Foreskin's Lament" is less amusing than you'd hope. It's actually quite sad. It's Shalom Auslander's memoir of his miserable childhood as an Orthodox Jew, which he recalls with (dare I say it) a slightly suspicious level of anecdotal detail.

It was miserable, we learn, not so much because of the Orthodox Judaism, but primarily because Shalom was abused physically and verbally by his father and rabbi. Though Auslander comes out with some good gags as he ridicules Jewish tradition, and though the book is written in a light-hearted tone reminiscent of Bill Bryson, it is ultimately a grim memoir from the Dave Pelzer school. As such, it makes for awkward reading.

A little bit hypocritical
This book is very very funny in typically Jewish style but please read to the end why I gave 3 stars and not 5.

Shalom's father is an ultra strict, ultra orthodox but heavy drinking Jew. His family live in a Jewish enclave in New York. Shalom believes that his dad makes his family's life hell, drinking any Kosher wine he can lay his hands on during the Sabbath, banging his fists on the table, terrorising his meek wife and children. When he hears his classmate's father has died he puts 2 and 2 together, as the Jewish faith states that a son under the age of 13's sins are the responsibility of the father. Therefore his mate is a courageous hero who has virtually murdered his own Dad. Shalom then sets about trying to do away with his own father by sinning as much as possible - sinning in this case can be switching the lights on and off loads of times on the Sabbath or eating a meat sandwich with a glass of milk.

From the beginning there are laughs on every page. All at the expense of the Jewish faith and rituals.

How disappointed I was by the end though in that Shalom several times condemns ritual circumcision - indeed that is the title of the book is it not? Lamenting his foreskin. Why then did he decide to circumcise his own son? and feebly say 'I couldnt decide what to do' So he plumped for the operation on his innocent and religeously undecided baby - Just in case.

So Shalom is making money in writing this book by disparaging his faith and then just as the non believers are cheering him on he goes and does the opposite of all he has written about. Sad and very disappointing.

Running scared from religion
At roughly two thirds through Shalom Auslander's "Foreskin's Lament" the author explains in a letter he is trying to write to his unborn son:

"I know it doesn't make sense. I know I shouldn't believe it. I know, and I know, and I know, but I just can't seem to get this Character out of my head. I've tried to forget, I've tried to reframe Him, to rewrite Him, to move on. I read Sam Harris. I read Richard Dawkins. It all makes sense, but none of it helps. Maybe I am beyond help".

This really is the crux of book. One man's battle with the ultraconservative religious conditioning he received growing up as an Orthodox Jew in Spring Valley, New York. However, don't expect a complete overt ridiculing of religion - although it is far from respectful - this is a battle that is set to end one way: in negotiations.

This is a continuation of the theme Auslander began in his debut book, "Beware of God" and uses the same very humorous commentary style. It is this particular style that makes the whole book reads more like a therapy session than a biographical work with the author shifting between the impending birth of his first child and his experiences growing up in Spring Valley; his time spent studying in Israel, his work as a "shomer" (a watcher of dead bodies) and his eventual casting out of his community. There are plenty of times when you read the work tongue-in-cheek; wondering if this is really the work of an atheist putting across an irreverently satirical idea. The repression and hypocrisies of his family juxtaposed with their holier than thou veneers comes across as classic irreligious farce. It is arguable that Auslander uses God as a disguised metaphor for the very nature of his family and his particular community.

However, Auslander's discussions, particularly with his wife, Orli, who regularly remarks "They really did a number on you", are very convincing. You genuinely feel for the idea of a person fighting against his early programming through over devotion then rebellion, a return to devotion and finally an acceptance of a type compromise outside his cultural group.

"Foreskin's Lament" is very amusing from start to finish - full of quotable lines that would move even the staunchest theologian - and despite the word "irreverent" popping up in the majority of reviews I did not find any intentional malice directed at anyone, not even God.