One review that I read on Lax’s book, Uncovered, comes from the American Library Association’s Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Round Table. This very brief review mostly serves to summarize Lax’s book and make it appealing to readers. However, this review glaringly oversimplifies the very complex and nuanced issues that are presented, particularly in relation to Hasidism. Being a review on a GLBT forum, I understand the propensity to paint Lax’s story as an escape from an oppressively strict religion into freedom as a lesbian woman. However, this ignores the appeal of the religion, the factors that brought Lax in and complicated her desire to leave. While Lax did choose to leave Hasidism and was able to feel more herself outside of it, it must be acknowledged that her relationship to her Hasidic life is highly complex and nuanced.
(Ritchie, Cathy. “Book review: Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home, by Leah Lax.” GLBT Reviews. October 1, 2015. https://www.glbtrt.ala.org/reviews/book-review-uncovered-how-i-left-hasidic-life-and-finally-came-home-by-leah-lax/)
Another review, from Lambda Literary, goes much more in depth. It recognizes the complexity of Lax’s story, how it resists the narratives we’ve come to expect from a lesbian woman’s escape from fundamentalist religion. It acknowledges the appeal of fundamentalist religion and how aspects of that life helped Lax. It also brings up Lax’s background in a much more secular household. What this review alludes to that I think is more central to Lax’s story is her relationships and interactions with others. Her mentally ill parents, her sisters, her early unacknowledged love interests, her female friends within and outside of the Hasidic community. It is these relationships that I believe are central to what drove Lax to Hasidism and what eventually drove her out.
(Enszer, Julie R. “‘Uncovered: How I left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home’ by Leah Lax.” Lambda Literary. October 8, 2015. https://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/10/08/uncovered-how-i-left-hasidic-life-and-finally-came-home-by-leah-lax/)
