But when we didn't obey what he had commanded, he didn't like us. He hated us. Some days he hated us so much, he killed us; other days, he let other people kill us. We call these days "holidays."

3.5 stars.

Shalom is bitter and angry at his stifled Orthodox Jewish upbringing, but still terrified of God in his "freedom" as an adult. His abusive father's actions were magnified, enhanced and twisted by his school teachers into the shape of their God, leaving him with no choice but to believe he would never be safe no matter how far astray he wandered - He was always with him. His writing can be funny as hell, but as someone who has never had religion in any way, shape or form, the fear he feels so exceptionally irrational that it's difficult for me to see him as a person rather than an exaggerated character. As his wife Orli says: "they really did a number on [him]".