Shmutz
A Novel
Published on 19. July 2022
272 pages
978-1-9821-7764-5 (ISBN)
Description
"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.
More details
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Person
Felicia Berliner has an MFA from Columbia University. Shmutz is her first novel.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- 1. Daughter of Israel
- 2. Dream-Teller
- 3. Signs
- 4. O'Donovan Here
- 5. Just Try Once
- 6. The Dress in the Tub
- 7. The B'show
- 8. Cold Turkey
- 9. A Blessing for Traif
- 10. The Rebbetzin
- 11. The Smell of There
- 12. Broken Time
- 13. V-neck
- 14. Bruches Bee
- 15. Too Much
- 16. The Girls Inside Her
- 17. Mint Schnapps
- 18. Dead from Forgetting
- 19. Borsalino
- 20. Piggy Bank
- 21. Taking Out the Not
- 22. Purim Shtick
- 23. Fire
- 24. Kokosh Cake
- 25. Marriage-Date
- 26. Shvantz-Fresser
- 27. Plum Pie
- 28. Paid-for Jeans
- 29. By Whose Word Everything Came to Be
- 30. A Golem Between Every Man's Legs
- 31. Eighteen and One
- 32. Birthday Creampie
- 33. Shmutzvelt
- 34. Shloimi
- 35. The Food Falls Out of His Mouth
- 36. Until 120
- 37. Sam and Spark
- 38. What Day It Is
- 39. First F
- 40. What No One Can Take from You
- 41. Habits
- 42. Zeidy's Bed
- 43. The Boats Are Not Here
- 44. Seventy Percent
- 45. Who's in There
- 46. Exception to the Rule
- 47. My Eyes to the Mountains
- 48. Statistically Speaking
- 49. Killed Her
- 50. Meema Shprintza
- 51. Dean Zeidy
- 52. Gonif
- 53. Why
- 54. Every Night Is a Fight
- 55. Working Girl
- 56. Favorite Brother
- 57. Topless
- 58. Silver Treasure
- 59. What Do You Watch?
- 60. Snail in a Suit
- 61. You Pick for Me
- 62. Date-Moishe
- 63. Self-Therapy
- 64. Cured
- 65. Sheitel-Shopping
- 66. Moishe's Gift
- 67. The Dress
- 68. Last Day of Work
- 69. The Kalleh-Teacher
- 70. Forces of Evil
- 71. Goodbye
- 72. The End of Dating
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Glossary
- Copyright
