Shmutz

by Felicia Berliner

In this witty, provocative, and unputdownable debut novel 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 Brooklyn Hasidic 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 more conventional expectations of the family she loves.

A singular, stirring, and compulsively readable debut novel, Shmutz explores what it means to be a fully realized sexual and spiritual being caught between the traditional and modern worlds.

Genres: Fiction, Jewish, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Religion, Judaism, Adult

272 pages, Hardcover

First published July 19, 2022

Reviews

[Sunny Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Hasidic teenage girl struggle with her porn addiction: this is what made me want to pick up the book, and I was not disappointed on that end of the premise. I really really enjoyed this and it’s not a five star or 4.5 star read for me (right now; my reviews and thoughts on books can marinate and change with time etc) because the greater themes of gender oppression in an isolated religious community and the unique experiences our main character has as a college student and (aspiring/current) employed professional were quite nuanced I suppose? The pressing issue of the porn addiction was very interesting. Very Yes God Yes x Disobedience x rwylm

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Hamantaschen cookie on the book cover is a chewy, crumbly, sweet triangle shaped cookie with a center filled with sweet poppyseed or fruit fillings. It’s a popular treat on the Jewish holiday of Purim.
The custom of eating hamantaschen on Purim goes back at least several centuries.
The three corners of the hamantaschen ‘supposedly’ represents a victory over Oznei Haman’s three cornered hat. ‘Supposedly’, taking a bite out of the cookie is a defiance of bowing down to Haman and preventing him from carrying out his evil plan.

There is an alternative story of why the Hamantaschen (the crotch cookie) looks like a vagina…
There was thought that the rabbis preferred the cookie represented an anti-Semitic man over the powerful womb of our Queen Esther, the true heroine of Purim.

So, the hamantaschen and those three white lines on the book’s cover, represents a little mischievous infringement …
lurking underlying suppression from the religious traditions from most observant Hasidic women in regards to sex.

Author Felicia Berliner put the juicy yummy-ness back where the power belongs — with a remarkable protagonist named Raizl. Through Raizl….
Felicia did an excellent job at thrusting our thinking forward….teetering, stimulating, and spurring soulful truths.
Her prose has wonderful energy…exploring sexuality,
religion, arranged marriages, and porn addiction.

This book is not for pussies…..rather it’s for those who appreciate a little fun — but who also find it valuable to explore various cultural and sociological reasons for observant communities and beliefs.
So, although it’s funny, clever, and delightfully enjoyable….
humorous in many parts, it’s not ‘ha-ha’ silly.

….’Shmutz’ is packed-filled with many Yiddish words ….. [translations are included at the back of the book]
….There ‘are’ graphic sexual descriptions…..
And….
….Being Jewish, (not necessarily an Orthodox Jew), give a slight ‘understanding-advantage’ with the Yiddish/Jewish humor — but only ‘slightly’…..

“Shmutz” is wonderful a rabble-rousing-debut …. that could ‘possibly’ elicit a strong or passionate reaction from ultra orthodox observant Jews.
I’m not sure about this fact - but I it’s possible —- yet there are
powerful authentic undercurrents breathing on every page.

What I especially loved about this book— different than other closely-knit ultra orthodox community stories —where somebody clearly wants ‘out’… our protagonist ‘doesn’t’ want out.
Raizl’s secret porn addiction is causing conflicting feelings between freedom and security…
between acceptance of the rules and the opposition to those rules…
between modern and traditional cosmoses…..
But….
between meeting with her therapist- attending college - a new close Goth friend named Sam at school, family rituals and religious customs at home, going out on matchmaking dates, sexual urges increasing,(flush and aroused), Raizl is seriously trying to figure out how to balance her desires with female purity (laws of the niddah).

In “Shmutz” [dirt, stain, or filth….something lewd or profane],
……we fall-in-love with Raizl (Raziele), a young, single, Hasidic woman — who fears of never being able to settle in the arranged, married life expected of her because of a secret addiction to porn.
You’ll be dying to know how it ends.

Marvelously creative and pleasurably erroneously satisfying!!

[Meike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This debut is so unusual, compassionate, and wickedly hilarious: Our protagonist is 18-year-old Raizl, a young Hasidic woman who loves her family and her community, but struggles because she feels like she can't fit in - particularly due to her addiction to internet porn. Yes, Raizl fought her way into college and is even allowed to have a computer (both highly contested topics in her family), but now she is terrified that she won't find a husband and will fail her studies because she spends her nights secretly and compulsively watching "shmutz" (dirt). Her mother, who is unaware of the porn, but wants her daughter to get married ASAP, sends her to see a therapist in hopes to make her function, the matchmaker is working in overdrive, and Raizl is torn between her wish to learn and explore, her love for her roots, and her addiction.

What renders this novel interesting is the nuanced way in which Berliner illuminates Raizl's feelings: Here, the religious community is not simply an oppressive force to be fled; rather, it's also a haven of culture and a home for spiritual Raizl, member of a tightly-knit family, who in fact wants to get married and be a Hasidic wife - at the same time, the text clearly shows the patriarchal structures attached to her community and how Raizl suffers under them. Secretly, she eats bacon, befriends a group of Goths and finds parallels between their existences as outsiders, and uses the internet to find out about various aspects of the world she is not supposed to explore. And while the porn stands for her lust, a deeply human feeling stigmatized in probably most if not all religions, the addiction contradicts the idea that the porn, also often misogynistic, is a form of liberation. In this book, there are no simple answers.

Felicia Berliner grew up in the Hasidic community, so she knows a thing or two about Raizl's tribulations, and she manages to make Raizl's feelings relatable to people like me who are largely unaware of Hasidic culture. And while I feel like comparing her debut to Philip Roth, another Jewish writer who specialized in questions of sexual desire, is excessive - Roth should really have gotten the Nobel -, Berliner's work is fresh and exciting. The plot is rather sparse, the real action is going on inside Raizl's head, plus the text offers a variety of intriguing scenes and flashbacks, showing Raizl's living circumstances, her role in the family, at college and at work, and Hasidic traditions.

You can watch Felicia Berliner discuss "Shmutz" with Abby Stein (author of Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBQXF...

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is Felicia Berliner's debut book and I selected it from the 'new books' shelf of the library because I thought it was a comic novel. 'Shmutz' is the Yiddish word for dirt or grime, and the title just struck me as funny.

Well, the book has humorous moments but it's certainly not a comedy. The story revolves around a teenage girl named Raizl who lives with her Chasidic family in Brooklyn.



Chasidic Judaism is an ultra-orthodox branch of the religion and has strict rules for everything, including clothing, hair, food, dishes, prayer, behavior, education, marriage, and so on.


Chasidic men and boys


Chasidic girls

Raizl has a talent for numbers, and unlike most Chasidic girls, attends college and works outside the home. In addition to going to school, Raizl is a mother's helper and a part-time bookkeeper/accountant.



Raizl's contribution to the family's parnussa (income) allows her brothers to study Torah all day, which is de rigueur for Chasidic boys.



Arranged marriages are customary in the Chasidic community, and Raizl's parents contact a shadchen (matchmaker) to find their daughter a groom. Raizl refuses to meet potential husbands, however, because she's afraid of marriage. So Raizl's mother sends her to a psychiatrist, Dr. Podhoretz, in an effort to alleviate Raizl's fears.



Well, Raizl tells Dr. Podhoretz that she's addicted to pornography. Chasidic families almost never have computers, but Raizl's college scholarship includes a laptop that she needs for her studies. Like anyone with an internet connection, Raizl goes exploring and comes across porn videos (these are graphically described).

Raizl is absolutely fascinated by the porn images, which are far removed from anything she's familiar with. In fact Raizl's first language, Yiddish, hardly even has words for human private parts, much less sexual activities.

At first I thought this set-up would lead to a story about Raizl wanting to escape from the Chasidic community. However, that's not true at all. Raizl is a very devout Jew who's devoted to her parents and her Zeidy (grandfather); loves her sister and brothers; venerates Hashem (the Hebrew term for God); always says her prayers and blessings; adheres to most Chasidic customs; and so on. In fact Raizl wants to find a husband as much as her parents want her to, but she doesn't like any of the boys selected by the matchmaker.


Shidduch dating (arranged by a matchmaker) is the traditional system by which religious Jews meet their mates.

On the other hand, Raizl does warm up to some of the black-clad Goth students at her college, especially a girl called Sam, who seems to be as much of an 'outsider' as Raizl herself. Raizl 'sticks out' because she wears heavy beige tights, a long sleeved blouse, a long sleeved sweater, a modest skirt, and plain black flats.


Goth teens

Sam thinks Raizl's name is Razor - which is right up the Goth's alley. Besides hobnobbing with (what Chasidim would consider) inappropriate people, Raizl also gives in to the temptation of eating traif (non-kosher) food like bacon and eggs, bacon cheeseburgers, and the like. Conversely, at home Raizl's family eats kosher fare like cholent (slow-cooked stew) and kokosh cake (Hungarian chocolate babka).


Cholent


Kokosh Cake

The story follows Raizl's journey as she struggles with her desire to follow Chasidic customs while still being free of some of the paternalistic and restrictive rules of the community.

Some of my favorite characters are Raizl's Mami (mother), who loves her children and stands up to Tati (father) on occasion; and Raizl's brother Moishe, who has a good sense of humor and actually has the nerve to break his engagement when he realizes he isn't ready for marriage. On the other hand, I didn't like Raizl's employer, the Rebbetzin (rabbi's wife), who exhibits some truly bizarre behavior.

I was interested to learn that Mami's human hair sheitel (a wig worn by married Chasidic women) cost $3,000 and that newlywed Chasidic women are supposed to have at least three sheitels. Seems like an expensive proposition.



The story is generously laced with Yiddish words, which are defined in glossary at the back of the book. This was a learning experience for the author, who said in an interview: "[Yiddish] was the secret language my grandmother and grandfather used when they wanted to talk without me understanding. I picked up plenty as a kid, but it was not my first language. I definitely learned more in the course of writing this book." (I'll bet! LOL 😉)

This novel was certainly something 'different' and I'd recommend it to readers looking for a unique experience, folks curious about 'naughty' Yiddish words, and people wanting a peek into the Chasidic community.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounding up to offset the down votes by people who don't like this view of Orthodox Judaism. And while I can't verify the accuracy of the depiction of the Hasidic community I do think it's interesting that those who have left the community or are familiar with it but not a part of it have very similar accounts.

Fantastic cover. The cover gets a five out five.

The story itself felt a little disjointed and at times disingenuous. Like her relationship with her boss didn't seem to ring true and the kids she met at school lacked depth. Like there were just parts that felt more like a fever dream than what was actually happening. As a debut novel it's not bad, but some additional editing could have greatly improved the pacing.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I noticed my pal debra had added this to her TBR and the title/cover immediately had me intrigued (I will now officially go on the record and say covers resembling vaginas are apparently as much of a siren song to me as house covers). Then I took a gander at the blurb and saw this was a book about a Hasidic woman who becomes addicted to internet porn and I was like debra!



The quiet ones. They’re always the gals with something up their sleeve.

I’ll admit when I started Shmutz I thought surely there would be no actual smut contained within its pages and instead it would be a “literary” version of the non-porny story of a porn addict. But I was mistaken! Also . . . .



Truly, the blush worthy graphic depictions of the porn are what will make this book memorable. There was a really awful movie after Zellweger hit it big with Jerry Maguire called A Price Above Rubies where she was trying to prove she’s a great actress (which I would argue she was most definitely NOT until I saw The Thing About Pam earlier this year where she was absolutely delightful). Anyway, long story long that crap movie was about a Hasidic woman who had a bunch of fire in her loins and wanted to get freaky deaky with her husband despite their religious dictations. Good news for Raizl at the end of this one is that her new husband pops inappropriate wood at the mere proximity of her, so she might have found someone who will happily take her to Pound Town. She’s just not allowed to own a computer anymore.

[Left Coast Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Robb's A Death in Brazil resided on my Top Ten shelf for many years. Robb's no dummy, and realizes that Northern Hemisphere readers aren't going to be lining up to buy a book about Brazilian national politics. So he gives us beaches, he gives us samba, he gives us delicious foods and caipirinha and long brown legs. Amidst this bounty he tells his tale of money and power and sex and murder and daytime TV.

I think the sneaky Felicia Berliner takes the same approach in this well-realized work. Our hero Raizl's addiction to pornography is addressed right there on Page 1, and crops up continuously through the book. But dealing with Raizl's little problem wasn't really the point, I don't think. No, the real story here was the solution to her big problem, a problem faced by eighteen-year-olds everywhere: How to carve out an independent living while retaining the love and respect of your family.

I could not recommend this book to Jewish people, because 90% of the fun in this book is teaching Gentiles about Chasidic Jewish life, so far removed from the median American household.

Sam casually knocks one knee against Raizl's, warding off the cold, a sign of easy friendship.

"You've really never been stoned?"

Stoned? It makes Raizl think of the punishment in the Torah, stoning, which could happen if you were chutzpadik to your parents, or broke the Shabbes, or, chas v'shelum, had relations with not your husband.

Berliner was only twenty-five when she wrote this, but she writes with grace and eases us into the flood of Yiddish words so by the end of the book they lend authenticity without causing a moment's confusion.

I saw nothing in here to reduce my belief that religion is primarily a social construct to rob women of power. Blessed are you, Hashem, the men say every day, Who did not make me a woman. Raizl knows the rules and effortlessly follows the important ones, the ones that seem to exist in every happy family.

Porn is for people with no time for, or access to, seduction. Over 230 pages, Berliner seduced me plenty. Shkoyetch

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is absolutely in my sweet spot: the intersection of sex and religion. It grabs you up front, immersing you in Raizl's world, and addressing her obsession with porn with frankness. After a while it slows down and you get settled in. While there are lots of things that happen in this book, it is not heavy on plot. We need to fully understand every little rebellious baby step Raizl makes, and how easily her whole life could fall apart. Eventually I did find it compulsively readable, because I was so invested in Raizl, but it takes a little while to get you there.

I loved the push and pull of Raizl's struggles. She wants, she doesn't want. She changes her mind all the time. She dares and then she pulls back. It all felt so real to me, the tentativeness of it. And I felt her desire, not just her physical desire, but all the things she wants that do not go together. She falls in with a group of goths when she goes to her college accounting classes. Her mother sends her to a therapist because she has refused to be set up by the matchmaker. She clings to her laptop and the secrets she keeps on it with ferocity. She believes and she doubts and she believes again.

The prose is unique, peppered heavily with Yiddish (there is a glossary though I never used it, Berliner is great at making things clear from context) but even though it isn't a first-person narration it almost feels like it. There is a specific feeling to the prose, it feels "voice-y" despite not having a voice. The language can be a little stilted, but it fits with Raizl herself, always a little stilted, even when wearing her secret skinny jeans.

But where this book really won me over was the ending. I suspect many readers will dislike it, but it absolutely worked for me. I felt so conflicted, I could no longer say what I wanted for Raizl or what she should do. It hammered all of that home even more than the book had before. An impressive debut.

[PattyMacDotComma · Rating 5 out of 5]

5★ [Book content warning: graphic, explicit sex]
“At Citi Field, with forty thousand men as witnesses, the rabbis decreed that the internet, with filters, could be used only at work. And yeshivas* were not to admit any student with internet in the home. Raizl heard about it from some other students in her all-girls high school, who’d gotten the news on a livestream. The internet informed them that they were not allowed to use the internet. “ *[religious schools for boys and men]

From the very beginning of this book, you get a sense of the contradictions and the irony, the very real fear of transgression and the thrill of breaking the rules. Raizl may be a seventeen-year-old girl in a strictly Hasidic Jewish family, but she is also a seventeen-year-old girl in New York, where everything in the world is available.

If you hadn’t guessed from the title that shmutz is smut, you’ll figure it out soon enough. [The word does go through some changes from the German ‘schmutz’, but I digress.] This is full of it – smut, pornography and graphic descriptions of sexual acts – but it isn’t erotic, and I think it’s unlikely to turn any readers on. It isn’t sexy.

The following does not have spoilers. Everything below is in the beginning of the novel. The book opens with Raizl talking to a doctor because she says she’s afraid to get married, and her mother is desperate to find a match for her. She tells the doctor she can’t get married.

“ ‘Too much watching . . . on the computer.’
. . .
‘Wait, you mean pornography?’

Raizl nods slightly, a hint of yes. Porn, that’s what she watches. Shmutz.”

That’s on the first page. So how did this cloistered, Jewish girl get from ‘go to whoa’, as the saying goes? And WHOA, does she ever get there!

Raizl’s father, Tati, surprisingly allowed her to attend college to become an accountant. She has a head for numbers and is already working part-time as an assistant and helping to support the family. Meanwhile, her brothers are yeshiva students, studying religious texts, and contributing only their large appetites for Mami’s home cooking.

Raizl’s scholarship included a computer, which was required for her courses, so Tati had to relent. A librarian showed her how to use it, how to access the college website, and – most importantly – how to use Google.

“ ‘I googled “der Bashefer” ‘to see what the internet says about the Creator, and then I googled … She can’t mention the holy names. It was easier to type them than it is to say them.”

She saw paintings, googled the word “kiss”, and from there she fell down the rabbit hole from which she is unwilling or unable to escape. This is her secret, hers alone, under the covers at night, but we see it explicitly. She is a consumed (and exhausted) sex addict.

This is written in many very short chapters, some only a couple of pages long. That makes it easy to move between college, work, bed, goth friends, and Mami’s continued matchmaking attempts.

Nobody knows, nobody suspects. She wears the prescribed clothing – pretty much full-body armour – heavy, long, layered skirts, tops, and cardigans plus thick stockings. Very little flesh showing. Once she’s out in the world at college, she is an outsider, except to the goth students, who wear only black. She almost fits in.

She also has a pronounced accent, and they mistake her name for Razor – which they like.

“ ‘Hey, Razor,’ Sam says. Raizl’s heart skips a beat, to be acknowledged, even by the wrong name. ‘You’re looking good today. Nice skirt.’

A plain wool, but it’s black so Sam likes it. Raizl makes a mental note to wear it again soon.
. . .
But Raizl’s long skirt and tights are nothing special compared to Sam’s gothic maxi dress, yards of black lace over black boots that have thick rubber soles and steel at the toes. Sam clinks as she walks, the chains around her neck beating time against a studded belt with every step.”

At the same time that she begins to understand the porn industry, she is being prepared for marriage, which means a financial arrangement between families as well as the marital one between the bride and groom. Nobody really escapes the realities of life.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, partly because I have had friends who were raised in strict religious families, and I watched them buck the system in their own ways. My heart went out to Raizl when she was tempted to break the dietary restrictions, It was both funny and poignant.

“She practices ordering in the mirror. ‘Baikncheesebrrgrr,’ she says. ‘Friezz,’ she says. Tries to say it fast, to get any hint of Yiddish out of it.”

It was wrong on so many counts: unclean animal (pig) plus meat and dairy in the same mouthful. Bacon is the downfall of a lot of diets.

I will hide my personal anecdotes under a spoiler, since this is already long. I couldn’t help being reminded of them all, though.

One devout Catholic girl and I used to have lunch together, and once in a while it would be Friday and we would order hamburgers.

“Look what you made me do!” she’d shout. Then she’d shrug her shoulders and say that God didn’t want us to waste food, so she’d eat it rather than order a tuna fish sandwich instead.

This same friend’s best pal in high school was Jewish, from a kosher family, and when my friend went there for dinner, she insisted she had to have milk with her meal (an American custom), forbidden when eating meat, of course. So the family compromised by putting her glass of milk on a table in another room, so she could leave the table and drink it in there.

An older Jewish couple I know used to keep a kosher household but admitted they were sometimes tempted by bacon sandwiches. So they would eat them outside in the yard, presumably so as to not contaminate the house.

Thanks to Allen and Unwin for a copy of the book for review. I loved it.

[Leah M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been seeing this book all over Jewish Instagram accounts, and since it sounded really intriguing, I added it to my TBR instantly. When I was approved for an ARC, it was one of the books I was most looking forward to reading. However, it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting.

For people who aren’t as familiar with Judaism, let me explain. Much like other religions, there are different sects within Judaism. There are reform Jews and conservative Jews, and these are the Jewish people you most likely come into contact with and never even realize that they’re Jewish. Then there are the orthodox Jews, who are visibly Jewish. They wear modest clothing—long skirts, shirts with long sleeves and high necks, and wigs for the women, men with beards and yarmulkes in suits and black jackets, often in wide brimmed felt hats. Orthodox Jews are further broken down into individual groups, and Hasidic are among the ultra-orthodox, where the men wear payos (the long, curled sidelocks), and they typically don’t interact with people outside their own communities, and commonly speak Yiddish as a first language, English as a second or third. This is the type of community that is being written about.

My own family falls in between conservative and orthodox. I’ve always grown up keeping kosher, hearing Yiddish spoken fluently in the home, attending orthodox services, but not adhering to all of the orthodox practices. So while my own exposure to ultra-orthodox life is minimal, I was hoping for some positive Jewish representation within this community, since it’s sadly lacking in books and shows. This wasn’t what I got here.

I was sold on the stunning and attention-grabbing cover, with the strategically placed hamentaschen, the ubiquitous Purim treat. But I guess I can’t always judge a book by it’s cover. There were some things that I did enjoy, but the negative aspects of this story definitely outweighed the positives for me in this case.

One of the best parts of this book was Raizl’s inner struggle between her faith and religion and her own burgeoning desires. As she’s given access to an entire world’s worth of information through her forbidden computer, she also discovers the dark side of this knowledge, through an addiction that she quickly develops to pornography. In her community, she doesn’t have anyone that she can talk to and ask questions, and she’s limited in who she can turn to, and winds up discussing this with her therapist. But much of the work is left to Raizl herself, and I loved watching her wrestle with her desire and her faith.

I did love seeing all the Yiddish on the page. Since I grew up hearing it, so much of it was familiar to me. While the dialect is slightly different from the one I’m familiar with, it’s close enough that I didn’t have to refer to the glossary to understand, and there’s a lot that’s easy to pick up simply from context. But so few books use Yiddish to this extent, that it felt comforting to see.

However, the author didn’t bring to light any of the positive aspects of the lifestyle that Raizl has been brought up in. In a community that is so insulated, everyone is interconnected, everyone knows everyone else, everyone works together to make things happen and function smoothly. There is one scene in the book where they discuss how someone needs a baby monitor, and that no one has to buy anything new, since there are always hand-me-downs. This would be a great example of how the community comes together to support each other, but instead, all we see is that the people are cold and unfeeling towards each other. There doesn’t seem to be any love or even feeling amongst the members of Raizl’s family, and all of the relationships seem superficial. Even the ones that Raizl develops outside of her community never seem to go beyond the surface, and the characters other than Raizl always felt flat. Even the therapist didn’t seem to do anything, and it’s a poor imitation of what actually happens in therapy.

The story is uncomfortable, awkward, and at times, heartbreakingly sad. Raizl is a really smart girl who is trapped in a situation, and from the start of the book right until the end, it felt like a claustrophobic read. While it’s billed as unputdownable, I actually found it to be the opposite. I would put it down often, finding any excuse not to continue reading, even going as far as to do my least favorite chores to find an excuse to put off reading the next chapter, despite wanting to finish it as fast as possible so that I could move on to the next book. Ultimately, I finished it because I didn’t want to give up on the story, hoping that the ending would provide a satisfactory resolution, but when the last chapter finished, I was confused and actually expected there to be another chapter. It simply felt unfinished. And it definitely gave me icky vibes about reading something so overwhelmingly negative about a community that is already portrayed so negatively in the few situations where they are portrayed in books or shows (think Unorthodox on Netflix), while I’m sure the majority of people within this community could easily rattle off a laundry list of things that they love about being in their community and why they wouldn’t want to change their life.

[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an explicit but not erotic novel about being caught between worlds, the upsides and the downsides of self-discovery. It defies the all the beats of the typical sheltered-girl-casts-off-the-shackles story. I was also surprised by the early ending, right before the story comes to a full resolution – like an interrupted orgasm.

My full review of Shmutz can be found on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shmutz has the most intruiging blurb I've read recently and I had no idea what the story would be like beforehand. It was surprisingly compelling and not as smutty as I expected but an interesting story non the less

[Dun's · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading the blurb for this book, I was expecting a funny coming-of-age novel of a young woman living in a very conservative Hasidic community who accidentally comes across the world of internet porn and subsequently becomes addicted to watching. Instead of getting ha-ha vibes throughout the book, I laughed, smiled, and sympathized with the main character, Raizl.

I love how clear and yet also delicate the way the author writes about Raizl's struggles for staying devoted to her family and the community while also trying to figure out her own self through socializing with her college friends, talking with a therapist, and decoding porn.

I have very little familiarity with the Hasidic values and culture, and I wish I knew earlier that there is a glossary in the book at the end. That said, I was able to enjoy the book just fine.

Many thanks for the ARC copy received through Goodreads giveaway. Publication date: July 2022.

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a late bloomer to my own sexuality, I really enjoyed this coming of age tale of a Hasidic woman in Brooklyn with a secret addition to porn. Unlike most in her community, Raizl attended college and was given a laptop by the school for her assignments. Having this gave her access to the forbidden world of the internet, and she developed an addiction to porn, in addition to a curiosity for the world outside her traditional upbringing.

Unlike the popular representations of Hasidic women from the past several years, I really valued the rejection of the "enlightened woman is liberated from the terrors of Orthodoxy" trope. Raizl is smart, curious, and determined, but also loves Hashem, is devoted to her family, and desires to get married. The journey she undertakes is not to leave her community, but to reconcile her unconventional self with her traditions and beliefs. While I am not Hasidic, I am Jewish, and I loved the Yiddish and Jewish holidays and traditions included. The author obviously writes from a place of loving being Jewish, and that shone through the story. I wasn't sure how the story would be wrapped up as we neared the ending, but I am truly satisfied and feel Raizl made the choices that she wanted.

As a side note, I loved the emphasis Raizl put on the idea that Hashem is not the hegemonic Christian ideal of a man in the sky, but rather an unknown, nonhuman force, a Creator of which you cannot conceive an image. I wish this point was made more in Jewish lit and texts! I know that's a very Hasidic idea but it also accepted in other communities and it's something I really love about Judaism.

Overall, loved this book. You will learn a lot, and hopefully some readers will understand that not everyone feels hopelessly oppressed within a religious community. Sometimes, that community is where someone chooses to be.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shmutz is the first novel by American author, Felicia Berliner. Raised in a Hasidic home, eighteen-year-old Raizl is only permitted to attend Cohen college to study accounting because of her Mami’s persuasive reasoning with her Tati. The third child in the family, Raizl is smart and has won a scholarship that ensures no expense, and also provides a laptop.

The great rabbis have decreed that the Internet is, of course, forbidden, but her student advisor, unaware of this, happily shows Raizl how to google, to find anything she wants to know. Her very strict father has the internet at home for his own work, though, and, good and observant Jewish girl that she is, it’s a perfectly innocent search of a religious nature that drops her into porn sites. She is shocked, yes, but also curious.

Her eldest brother already married, and twenty-year-old (secretly pot-smoking) Moishe having rejected a match, it’s time for Raizl to start meeting some of the suitable young men the matchmaker has found.

But she’s holding off: which good young man is going to find her suitable when she’s addicted to watching internet porn? “He is indeed exactly what he should be. Only she is not who she should be, and this is her trap, wanting this man to be what he is, but also wishing he could be just a little different.”

Her visits to a therapist are, not as her Mami believes, to help her overcome her fear of marriage, but rather to overcome her addiction. So far, it’s not working...

At college, her conservative clothing makes her stand out, until she begins associating with a goth trio who love her naivete and her mother’s cooking. And Raizl begins secretly experimenting: non-Kosher food, and clothing of which her pious mother would definitely disapprove.

She rationalises her choices, trying to reconcile them with her religious beliefs. Her course-work, meanwhile, is suffering from sleepless nights with her laptop under the blankets in the bedroom she shares with her younger sister. What will it take to stop her watching?

As Raizl discovers a culture and customs so very different from her own, the reader less familiar with the Hasidic culture may, similarly, be learning about the customs of what seems like a newly-discovered tribe. Shmutz is Yiddish for, among other things, smut and, indeed readers should be aware that there are quite a few sexually explicit scenes.

It’s easy to empathise with Raizl, a young woman, discovering her own sexuality, making some (perhaps uninformed) choices and unsure where to look for guidance. Her inner monologue is often blackly funny and, bizarrely, her descriptions (in Yiddish) of what she watches seem less offensive than they might in plain English. Berliner provides a handy glossary of Yiddish words.

For some readers, Raizl’s needing to learn Yiddish sex words may be reminiscent of the singular experience of the migrant child whose religious parents never spoke a sex word in the home, returning to her birth country and using innocuous-seeming expressions which unexpectedly carry innuendo.

Berliner takes a novel premise and executes it with originality, humour and understanding. An outstanding debut novel.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Allen & Unwin.

[Bonnie G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept that underlies this book is really interesting, a Hassidic teen with a porn addiction which flowered when she went to college and was exposed to the internet for the first time, but there was a real problem in the execution. Berliner clearly felt it was necessary to describe many many porn movies in great detail. It is hard to imagine how many porn videos Berliner had to view to provide such detail. There is so much description that it is deadening. I suspect the idea was to mirror Raizl's experience of porn, which like any addictive substance loses its zing with time and over-exposure and leaves the user fruitlessly chasing the original high. To say the porn featured in this book lost its zing for me is a real understatement. I am not anti-porn in the least, I have seen plenty that did nothing for me, a bit that repulsed me, and a few videos that have, shall we say, had the desired effect. So while I came into this mildly pro-porn I left feeling like I had endured Clockwork Orange level aversion therapy. Relatedly Berliner felt compelled to describe Raizl's (many) masturbation sessions in great detail. Again, I am not offended or embarrassed, but there are only so many ways you can describe masturbation and orgasm, and also, does it really help the reader to read the description. Do I know more about Raizl and ultra-orthodoxy's assault on women's autonomy (more on this later) by dint of hearing once again about Raizl's decision to press on her clit as opposed to placing fingers on either side and varying their rhythms? No. I got nothing at all from that. I can live a long life without ever again reading the words shvantz and schmundie (Yiddish for vagina -- which I learned in this book so that was cool.) This all could have been better crafted. Explicit is fine, repetitive is bad. Also worth mentioning, the prose here is okay, but no better.

I am all about a look at how women in anti-women religious cults are crushed by the constant restriction of information and the inculcation of the message that the duty to financially, sexually and logistically support men is all that matters. We need to examine how women, especially these women but really most women, are robbed of agency and information, and how that helplessness and ignorance destroys women. It is a great foundation for a great book. Fundamentalists whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or other, always start by removing women's agency, keeping them ignorant (for their own good of course), and making them slaves to the rules created by men. In some ways the messaging here reminded me of Emma Cline's The Girls (though I liked this better.) There is a good book to be written here, but Shmutz is too sensational and repetitive and narrow in focus to be that book. This was true even though I liked the character of Raizl. She was funny and had a way of looking at porn that was funny, until it wasn't anymore. A 2.5, rounding up because I learned new dirty words in Yiddish which is always a plus.

[C P · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not great. The author has very little understanding of actual Chassidic life. Relatively minor events are made out to be important because they seemed important when covered by the NYT (like the asifa internet ban) and what would be life-changing events are treated nonchalantly (like her eating a bacon sandwich, stripping naked and performing oral sex on a stranger) and never mentioned again. There's no believable emotional content to these whatsoever; they're treated as symbolic but in real life they would be incredibly intense and require credible buildup. Throughout the book gives the strong impression that the author believes that mainstream secular culture is so fundamentally superior that only nostalgia and family ties would prevent anybody allowed exposure to it from leaving immediately, which empirically is not close to true. Even more offensive is the idea that Raizl is less comfortable there than others because of her intelligence. Entire scenes and plot points are based around complete misunderstandings of Chassidic culture, including the shidduch dates (which are never in the slightest bit sexual in real life but here are like 15 year olds on a field trip to a strip club) and their utter obsession with wearing hats literally all the time (not a real thing). There seems to have been some level of genuine effort on her part, but she's completely out of her depth. Even the pronunciations are only right 10% of the time, and the "Hebrew" and "Yiddish" is regularly garbled almost beyond identifiable intent. Even when the wording itself is possible it's usually placed in the mouth of a character who would never say that particular thing (Chassidic men and women use separate sets of idioms/commonplaces, with only limited overlap). For completion's sake, the one Aramaic word ("asisa") is fine. The orientalist, ArchiveOfOurOwn-esque sexual fantasy element is most annoying in the author's self-coined pseudo-Yiddish euphemisms. Strongest parts are the main plotline about porn addiction, which (except for the euphemisms) is mostly believable. But almost everything else is wrong, and much is offensively so. It's completely obvious that she didn't have even a single Chassidic beta reader, who could at least have corrected the pronunciations. You get the first hint of her level of knowledge/access to genuinely knowledgeable people before the book even starts, with that atrocious Bavli translation (authors, if you're reading this: there are multiple public domain translations, and they are all better that what you or your friends are capable of).

[Adina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like provocative stories and it was an interesting concept but all the characters are one-dimensional, the writing is awful, the plot is almost completely unbelievable, and the only thing I didn’t hate was the ending (I like hopelessness). As an Orthodox Jew, I was hoping to find a nuanced view of Orthodoxy and the various problems that arise within a religious, traditional community that lives amongst a modern world, but this is completely and blatantly a stereotypical, frustrating idea of what orthodoxy is with zero regard to the complexities of those communities. I don’t mind criticism of Orthodox communities—I actually encourage it as long as it’s a truthful and nuanced depiction! I’m so tired of books that completely demonize them—it’s not only offensive, but bad art.

Oh also, why bring up incredibly important, difficult issues (such as racism, homophobia, and abortion) only as a quick one page thing and then never mention them again??? I’m genuinely baffled at the way these things were shoehorned it. Everything important to explore seemed like an afterthought.

Also, I laughed when we found out Raizl had never seen a picture of a pig before. Like ??????

Finding out Berliner declined to say whether she did outside research for this book is…not surprising

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shmutz was a book that I really wanted to love, but I just had a difficult time getting into the story. While Raizl's internal struggles were definitely interesting, and you could feel the struggles of her coming of age story, I was left wanting something more.

Hearing about her relationship to her religion in contrast to her sexuality was fascinating and there were definitely parts that drew me in, but at the same time, I had a hard time getting through other parts. Maybe my expectations were a little too high after reading some of the reviews. I was expecting a book that I was unable to put down, but I really found myself struggling to get through this one.

Many Thanks to Atria Books and Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Anika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine chassidische Jüdin, die pornosüchtig ist. Nein, wirklich, darum geht's - und es ist sehr lustig, aber nie platt. Und sehr schlau obendrein.

Mehr zum Buch in unseren ausführlichen Besprechungen @ Papierstau Podcast: Folge 269: Geschlechtsteile sind wichtig!

[Lazy_bookelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich fand den Einblick in Raizls Welt und den Konflikt zwischen Religion und Sexualität zwar unglaublich interessant, aber das für meinen Geschmack viel zu simple Ende hat mich leider enttäuscht.

[Kathrin Passig · Rating 4 out of 5]

In der ersten Hälfte fand ich es sehr lustig und stilistisch elegant, aber ich habe mir Sorgen gemacht, dass das schon wieder so ein Fremde-Kultur-als-Fototapete-Buch sein könnte. Dann kommt ein etwas unentschlossener Mittelteil (was vielleicht Absicht ist, denn es geht auch inhaltlich um Unentschlossenheit) und dann ein überraschender Schluss, der meinen Fototapetenverdacht gelindert hat. Nebenbei lernte ich das schöne Wort seichelphone (und viele andere).

[Teresa Reichl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich bin durchGERAUSCHT durch dieses Buch. Es geht um Raizl, eine streng gläubige Jüdin, die leider ultra süchtig nach Pornos ist. Es macht Spaß und schlau gleichzeitig. Und was eine sympathische Protagonistin.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bei ihm stimmt in der Tat alles. Nur bei ihr nicht, und das ist die Falle, in der sie sitzt, sie will, dass dieser Mann das ist, was er ist, aber sie wünscht sich auch, er wäre ein kleines bisschen anders, als er ist."

Raizle passt nicht so ganz rein in das Chassidische Ideal ihrer Familie. Das beginnt schon damit, dass sie als Frau aufs College geht und Buchhaltung lernt. Denn warum sollte eine strenggläubige jüdische Frau eine Berufsausbildung machen, wenn ihre Aufgabe ohnehin sein wird, Kinder zu bekommen und großzuziehen? Kein Wunder, dass die Heiratsvermittlerin nur mit größter Mühe geeignete Kandidaten für ein erstes Treffen auftreiben kann. Doch daraus wird dann nicht mehr. Auch Raizles Pornosucht, die sie vor der ganzen Familie verheimlicht, ist da keine große Hilfe. Ganz im Gegenteil: Während Raizle ganze Nächte unter der Decke mit ihrem Laptop verbringt, leidet sie unter Schlafmangel und schreibt immer schlechtere Noten in ihren Nebenfächern. Gleichzeitig regt sie das Verbotene aber auch dazu an, immer mehr kleine Schritte in Richtung der Emanzipation zu gehen. Sie es, Speck zu essen oder eine Jeans zu tragen.

Felicia Berliner greift in ihrem Roman "Shmutz" zwei Welten auf, die sich von je her reiben, gegenseitig beschränken und ausschließen und in aller Heimlichkeit dann doch verschmelzen: Sex und Religion. Auf den ersten Blick mag das vielleicht reißerisch wirken und tatsächlich wird schon auf den ersten Seiten eine Pornohandlung recht genau umrissen. Aber es geht der Autorin gar nicht so sehr um das Ausreizen von Tabus. Vielmehr wird schnell klar, wie hilflos sich Raizle in einer Welt außerhalb ihrer Chassidischen Familie bewegt. Alle Begriffe für Geschlechtsteile und Geschlechtsverkehr, ja ihr gesamtes Wissen darüber, entstammen den Pornos. Jegliche Beziehungen, die sie z.B. unter ihren Freunden am College beobachtet, laufen vor dieser Folie ab. Die schmutzige Internetwelt liefert ihr Wörter und Wissen für etwas, das in der Religion als Leerstelle gesehen wird. Gleichzeitig weiß Raizle aber auch, dass ihre Familie ihr Verhalten als falsch empfindet. Das treibt sie in tiefe Gewissenskonflikte - Was wenn ihr Vater sie rausschmeißt? Soll sie einfach weglaufen? Muss sie Heiraten? Bringt sie Schande über die Familie, wenn sie es nicht tut?

Neben dieser Emanzipationsgeschichte ist der Roman für nicht-jüdische Leser auch ein Lehrstück im Fremdverstehen. Das beginnt bereits bei den zahlreichen jiddischen Begriffen, die nicht immer im Kontext erklärt werden und sich auch nicht so ohne weiteres im Internet nachschlagen lassen. Stellenweise fehlt das Hintergrundwissen, um Aussagen wie "Alle Juden sind rassistisch", die einer von Raizels Mitschülern trifft, einzuordnen. Leser erleben die Handlung in gewisser Weise auf umgekehrte Weise. Raizles Fremdheitsgefühl am College erlebt der Leser in (fast) allen Szenen, die bei Raizle zuhause spielen. Ein gelungener erzählerischer Handgriff. Somit öffnet der Roman im besten Sinne Fenster in andere (Lebens-)Welten.

[johnny ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

aside from the goth kids acting in the most stereotypical way, this novel was fantastic. the ending definitely made me feel a bit sick, and i wanted to know what happened after. the way berliner shows the way extremely religious women deal with sex and porn is very apt. this novel was incredibly interesting and definitely a page turner. but… i just wish raizl got what she wanted, you know? is she truly happy like this? what happened to that rebellious spirit? and the cycle continues.

[emma charlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shmutz follows Raizl, a young Hasidic woman in New York, on her challenging quest to find a partner and her descent into porn addiction. This is a great novel about coming of age in an ultra-religious family, loving and valuing that tradition, but trying to decide if it will all be true for you too. Would recommend to fans of A Woman is No Man! Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!

[marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

trudno mi te ksiazke ocenic. z jednej strony to powiesc o bardzo ciekawym temacie, przez ktory plynie sie tak, ze ciezko sie oderwac. ale z drugiej jednak strony, postacie sa jednowymiarowe, a czesc elementow fabuly jest absolutnie niewiarygodna. ale chyba debiutom powinno sie niektore rzeczy wybaczac …….

[zbookami · Rating 3 out of 5]

NIENAWIDZE OTWARTYCH ZAKONCZEN.

ta książka była dobra i miała taki potencjał na 5 gwiazdek, ale zakończenie mi to zepsuło.

[Lena Schalentier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Urlaubsbuch fünf.
Das war ganz ganz großartig! Eine pornosüchtige chassidische Jüdin und ganz viele tolle Beobachtungen über Sexualität, freien Willen, Religion, Familie und die Welt.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the story of a young woman, Raizl, in the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community in Brooklyn whose parents, because of her gift and aptitude for math and finance and the money it provides for the family, allow her to attend college and work as a bookkeeper in the diamond district. Therefore she has her own (usually forbidden) laptop with access to the internet. When she stumbles across pornographic videos, she quickly becomes entranced and addicted. With no first hand experience, virtually no knowledge, and no one to talk to, she is understandably confused and ill-equipped to process what she sees online. The pressure from her family and community to consent to an arranged marriage creates so much anxiety for Raizl that her mother sends her to a (non-Orthodox) therapist for help.

This book was extremely disturbing, unsettling, and sad. Unlike other books, like On Division Street by Goldie Goldbloom or the novels by Naomi Ragen, that have "exposed" the ultra-Orthodox community to readers, debut novelist Felicia Berliner does not portray the community with any warmth or illuminate any of the positive aspects of an observant Jewish lifestyle. Raizl's parents seem cold and unloving, I didn't understand her relationship with her grandfather or the Rebbetzin (her boss), and her siblings, as well as the "social outcasts" she became friendly with from school, were two dimensional and under-developed. The therapist was disappointing and the ending left too many things unresolved.

The best thing about this book is the cover! A strategically placed triangle shaped hamantaschen cookie against a peachy-beige background with three white lines that evoke thighs and a crotch . . . as Berliner herself wrote in a Lithub article: "Sometimes a cookie is not just a cookie!"