Shmutz by Felicia Berliner – 272 pages
Book Blurb:
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.
My Review: 3.5 stars
Shmutz by Felicia Berliner had a cover and premise that drew me in from first glance at the bookstore. Wow. What a completely novel idea to explore modern versus traditional sexuality through fiction.
Raizel will be a character I won’t long forget. Raised under Hasidic rules, she pretty stunted sexually. When she gets her first glance at porn on a computer borrowed from school, she’s immediately awakened to its power. She soon becomes addicted.
More than anything, this book makes you think and question the relationship between porn and our own sexuality. Between how we were raised and our comfort level as sexual beings. Add in the orthodox versus contemporary Judaism and it becomes a book.
Quotes I liked:
Had sex always been behind everything, and she just hadn’t seen it? The way that people don’t see G-d in everything?
“Books wait everywhere.”
“Your property, someone can steal. What you study, no one can take from you.”
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