Shmutz : A Novel

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"Berliner shines in her depictions of a deeply religious life, both in its inequities and its enchantments. If the plot is at times a bit sparse, the prose is inventive, notably in how it uses Raizl’s native Yiddish (and her application of it to porn) to great effect. This brave, eye-opening tale is full of surprises." - Publishers WeeklyLike 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."Berliner’s very literal and Yiddish-inflected synopses of porn as perceived by Raizl are hilarious and endearing ... a dirty book with a pure heart, though the story was wrapped up before I was ready to leave Raizl’s wonderfully horny head. Let her laptop burn forever into the night." - Alex Biggs, The New York Times Book ReviewA 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. “Berliner finds the bridge between ecstatic and carnal.” —Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author “Hilarious and endearing...a dirty book with a pure heart.” —The New York Times 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. "An arranged marriage is expected for Raizl, but she's not like the other young women in her Hasidic sect in Brooklyn. Raizl has a college scholarship to study accounting, a part-time job that supports her family, and a hidden computer making it all possible. That's where she finds the porn, through the slippery slope of an innocent Google search. As Raizl dives deeper into the world of porn at night, her daytime life begins to unravel. The porn is thrilling, cracking open a world of desire and experience that is becoming irresistible to Raizl-but it also threatens to tear her away from the family she loves. As the novel moves between Raizl's combative visits to the shrink she requested, arranged dates, and loving but complicated exchanges with her family, readers will be drawn to confront their own paradoxical sexuality and the trade-offs we all make for the sake of stability and familial love. A singular, compulsively readable debut, Shmutz explores what it means to be a fully-realized sexual and spiritual being amidst the contradictory messages of both the traditional and modern world"-- Provided by publisher "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 ), S hmutz explores what it means to be a fully realized sexual and spiritual being caught between the traditional and modern worlds.