Feh
Read by
Shalom Auslander
Release:
07/23/2024
Runtime:
9h 39m
Quantity:
Shalom Auslander is a truth teller whose punim you want to pinch… Feh is a dark, daffy chronicle of failure and disappointment. . .Feh inverts the old tagline ‘never let them see you sweat’; it is all sweat on display, salty and messy, the exposed shirt stains of someone determined to be a bronze medalist even at the insecurity Olympics.
The New York Times
“Auslander’s literary career has been built on equal parts comedy, heterodoxy and self-loathing. . .His oeuvre is deliberately unsettling and funny. . .the persistent blackness of the book’s black comedy makes the tiny shafts of light in the latter chapters shine that much brighter. None dare call it a redemption narrative — that’s feh-talk — but Auslander does find a place where he doesn’t have to be overwhelmed with contempt for himself or others. . .The two are intertwined. Even if we work to fix our predicament — expunge ourselves of pointless shame, stop courting needless self-harm — it’s unlikely we’ll ever stop entirely hating ourselves. But we can try, as Auslander does for much of Feh to write a story that’s still honest, without feeding into the hate.
“Auslander’s literary career has been built on equal parts comedy, heterodoxy and self-loathing. . .His oeuvre is deliberately unsettling and funny. . .the persistent blackness of the book’s black comedy makes the tiny shafts of light in the latter chapters shine that much brighter. None dare call it a redemption narrative — that’s feh-talk — but Auslander does find a place where he doesn’t have to be overwhelmed with contempt for himself or others. . .The two are intertwined. Even if we work to fix our predicament — expunge ourselves of pointless shame, stop courting needless self-harm — it’s unlikely we’ll ever stop entirely hating ourselves. But we can try, as Auslander does for much of Feh to write a story that’s still honest, without feeding into the hate.
From the acclaimed author of Foreskin’s Lament, a memoir of the author’s attempt to escape the biblical story he’d been raised on and his struggle to construct a new story for himself and his family
Shalom Auslander was raised like a veal in a dysfunctional family in the Orthodox community of Monsey, New York: the son of an alcoholic father; a guilt-wielding mother; and a violent, overbearing God. Now, as he reaches middle age, Auslander begins to suspect that what plagues him is something worse, something he can't so easily escape: a story. The story. One indelibly implanted in him at an early age, a story that told him he is fallen, broken, shameful, disgusting, a story we have all been told for thousands of years, and continue to be told by the religious and secular alike, a story called "Feh."
Yiddish for "Yuck."
Feh follows Auslander's midlife journey to rewrite that story, a journey that involves Phillip Seymour Hoffman, a Pulitzer-winning poet, Job, Arthur Schopenhauer, GHB, Wolf Blitzer, Yuval Noah Harari and a pastor named Steve in a now-defunct church in Los Angeles.
Can he move from Feh to merely meh? Can he even dream of moving beyond that?
Auslander's recounting of his attempt to exorcize the story he was raised with—before he implants it onto his children and/or possibly poisons the relationship of the one woman who loves him—isn’t sacred. It is more-than-occasionally profane. And like all his work, it is also relentlessly funny, subversively heartfelt and fearlessly provocative.
Shalom Auslander was raised like a veal in a dysfunctional family in the Orthodox community of Monsey, New York: the son of an alcoholic father; a guilt-wielding mother; and a violent, overbearing God. Now, as he reaches middle age, Auslander begins to suspect that what plagues him is something worse, something he can't so easily escape: a story. The story. One indelibly implanted in him at an early age, a story that told him he is fallen, broken, shameful, disgusting, a story we have all been told for thousands of years, and continue to be told by the religious and secular alike, a story called "Feh."
Yiddish for "Yuck."
Feh follows Auslander's midlife journey to rewrite that story, a journey that involves Phillip Seymour Hoffman, a Pulitzer-winning poet, Job, Arthur Schopenhauer, GHB, Wolf Blitzer, Yuval Noah Harari and a pastor named Steve in a now-defunct church in Los Angeles.
Can he move from Feh to merely meh? Can he even dream of moving beyond that?
Auslander's recounting of his attempt to exorcize the story he was raised with—before he implants it onto his children and/or possibly poisons the relationship of the one woman who loves him—isn’t sacred. It is more-than-occasionally profane. And like all his work, it is also relentlessly funny, subversively heartfelt and fearlessly provocative.
Release:
2024-07-23
Runtime:
9h 39m
Format:
audio
Weight:
0.0 lb
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780525635741
Praise