Synopses & Reviews
In Uncovered, Leah Lax tells her story--beginning as a young teen who left her liberal, secular home for life as a Hasidic Jew, and ending as a forty-something woman who has to abandon the only world she's known for thirty years in order to achieve personal freedom. In understated, crystalline prose, Lax details her experiences with arranged marriage, cult-like faith, and motherhood during her years with the Hasidim, and explores how her creative, sexual, and spiritual longings simmer beneath the surface throughout her time there. The first book to tell the story of a gay woman who spent thirty adult years in the Hasidic fold, Uncovered is the moving story of Lax's long journey toward finding a home where she truly belongs.
Review
"In
Uncovered, Leah Lax tells a personal story that millions of women can recognize. All over the world are women whose bodies are covered, not by their own decision, but by one of the many patriarchal religions that by definition rule their wombs. Leah Lax lived that life, yet has the spirit, courage and honesty to tell her story. It's been said that, if one woman told the truth, the world would split open. If others follow her, it just might."
—Gloria Steinem
"Aching, absorbingly told, and with genuine tenderness toward the damaged, struggling, and sometimes helpful souls who populate a life, Uncovered is a marvelous memoir, one in which any reader will find echoes of our own quests for an authentic life."
—Mark Doty, National Book Award author of Fire to Fire, Firebird, and Deep Lane
"Absolutely stunning! With memorable, passionate detail, Leah Lax recounts a unique search for wholeness and healing that paradoxically plunged her into the quicksand of shame. Written in poetic prose whose color and savor will linger long after you finish the book, this memoir makes the flickering appeal of a life of inflexible rules as seductively clear as it is claustrophobic--a remarkable achievement. Dramatic, revelatory, deeply moving, and ultimately inspiring, this is a truly one-of-a kind memoir about the universal longing to discover, nurture, and celebrate one's authentic self."
—Lev Raphael, author of My Germany: A Jewish Author Returns to the World His Parents Escaped
"In this courageous, important book, Leah Lax reveals a voice once doubly silenced by orthodox religion--as a woman and a lesbian--on a deeply moving journey to selfhood. Should be required reading!"
—Sandi DuBowski, Director, Trembling Before G-d
"In Uncovered, Leah Lax remembers in rich detail how she moved from loneliness through what promised to be a new family and a new community, into a pure appreciation of the world--and how, instead, it suppressed her deepest needs. Her book is a profound and poignant story of innocence and experience, those ancient universals, and transforming joy at the end."
—Rosellen Brown, author of the New York Times bestseller Before and After
Synopsis
A naïve lesbian teen in Texas is drawn into a group of Hassidic Jews with their offers of refuge from her troubled family and promises of eternal love. She becomes one of them, but ultimately, as a forty-something woman, comes to reject everything she has lived for three decades in order to be who she truly is.
Synopsis
Uncovered is the first memoir ever to tell of a gay woman from the Hasidic fold. In understated crystalline prose, Lax recounts her story beginning as a young teen who leaves her secular home to become a Hasidic Jew. Along the way, she plumbs the nuances of arranged marriage, fundamentalist faith, and Hasidic motherhood, as her creative, sexual, and spiritual longings shimmered beneath the surface.
Writers' League of Texas Discover Award Finalist: Pirate's Alley/PEN Faulkner, May Sarton Award, Chautauqua Prize
Synopsis
Uncoveredis the first memoir to tell of a gay woman leaving the Hasidic fold. Told in understated, crystalline prose, Lax begins her story as a young teen leaving her liberal, secular home to become a Hasidic Jew, then plumbs the nuances of her arranged marriage, fundamentalist faith, and Hasidic motherhood, as her creative, sexual, and spiritual longings shimmer beneath the surface.
Writers' League of Texas Discover Award Finalist: Pirate's Alley/PEN Faulkner, May Sarton Award, Chautauqua Prize
Synopsis
Writers' League of Texas Discover Award
Finalist: Pirate's Alley/PEN Faulkner, May Sarton Award, Chautauqua Prize
a Redbook Magazine and Good Housekeeping Best Book of 2015 Uncovered is the first memoir to tell of a gay woman leaving the Hasidic fold. Told in understated, crystalline prose, Lax begins her story as a young teen leaving her liberal, secular home to become a Hasidic Jew, then plumbs the nuances of her arranged marriage, fundamentalist faith, and Hasidic motherhood, as her creative, sexual, and spiritual longings shimmer beneath the surface.
Synopsis
Writers' League of Texas Discovery Award
Wordwrite Award
Finalist: Pirate's Alley Faulkner Prize, May Sarton Award, Independent Publisher Book Award, Chautauqua Prize
a Redbook Magazine and Good Housekeeping Best of the Year
Houston Chronicle #1 Pick
Uncovered is the first memoir to tell of a gay woman leaving the Hasidic fold. Told in understated, crystalline prose, Lax begins her story as a young teen leaving her liberal, secular home to become a Hasidic Jew, then plumbs the nuances of her arranged marriage, fundamentalist faith, and Hasidic motherhood, as her creative, sexual, and spiritual longings shimmer beneath the surface.
About the Author
Leah Lax has won awards in both fiction and nonfiction and her work has been included in numerous anthologies and publications, print and online--including Dame, Lilith, and Salon. Her work for stage has been reviewed in The New York Times, and Rolling Stone magazine, and has been broadcast on NPR. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Houston.