Shmutz: A Novel
“Hilarious and endearing...Shmutz is a dirty book with a pure heart.” —The New York Times
In this witty, provocative, and “compulsively readable coming-of-age story” (Cosmopolitan), a young Hasidic woman on a quest to get married fears she will never find a groom because of her secret addiction to porn.
Like the other women in her ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn community, Raizl expects to find a husband through an arranged marriage. Unlike the other women, Raizl has a secret.
With a hidden computer to help her complete her college degree, she falls down the slippery slope of online pornography. As Raizl dives deeper into the world of porn at night, her daytime life begins to unravel. Between combative visits with her shrink to complicated arranged dates, Raizl must balance her growing understanding of her sexuality with the expectations of the family she loves.
“Clever, subversive, juicy, and surprising” (Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies), Shmutz explores what it means to be a fully realized sexual and spiritual being caught between the traditional and modern worlds.
In this witty, provocative, and “compulsively readable coming-of-age story” (Cosmopolitan), a young Hasidic woman on a quest to get married fears she will never find a groom because of her secret addiction to porn.
Like the other women in her ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn community, Raizl expects to find a husband through an arranged marriage. Unlike the other women, Raizl has a secret.
With a hidden computer to help her complete her college degree, she falls down the slippery slope of online pornography. As Raizl dives deeper into the world of porn at night, her daytime life begins to unravel. Between combative visits with her shrink to complicated arranged dates, Raizl must balance her growing understanding of her sexuality with the expectations of the family she loves.
“Clever, subversive, juicy, and surprising” (Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies), Shmutz explores what it means to be a fully realized sexual and spiritual being caught between the traditional and modern worlds.
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Community Reviews
I purchased this as an audiobook & listened to it. I speak Yiddish so I understood the terminology & the references. Sometimes the reader didn’t pronounce things correctly but overall it was fine. This is coming-of-age/cultural awakening story with Yiddishisms thrown in to contextualize the Hasidic experience. I enjoyed listening to the book although some of the chapters were short/ choppy when things & characters (e.g., Podhoretz, the psychiatrist) could’ve been fleshed out more fully. I was disappointed in the end of the book- she finds her man, gives up her studies & her computer, & secrets a smartphone in a box of menstrual pads. Seriously?! She doesn’t reflect on how she should continue her education, esp. since she will be supporting the couple. She had a glimpse & a taste of the secular world & she’s leaving it behind.
Enjoyable listen but disappointing ending.
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