Thought this was going to be a typical OTD story with a zany, porn-brained twist. Instead, I got a beautiful, painful, introspective look at sex, religion, and community. Not a perfect book, but definitely an enveloping one. It desperately has sequel potential.

Small note: If you're not familiar with Hasidic life, it's worth reading the reviews of those who are. They have some valid complaints. I could definitely tell when the author's lack of Hassidish experience bled through in some of the writing, not for the lack of knowledge (there's so so much in here!) but by the appearance of customs and objects that are widely known to outsiders. There was nothing here that surprised me—and that's just from a lot of learning as an outsider. I think a true-to-life perspective would have thrown me a bit, you know?

Also, it has a lot of hand-holding. Like, I get it. A book that does not explain Brachot or Mincha would simply not work for the vast majority of casual readers. But. It would have been super cool! ( )

Unrealistic. Not sure if this would ever happen in the community. Author did get so much right but really. ( )

Thanks to NG.

Quite an interesting read. It's a little graphic but what do you expect with a Chasidic woman addicted to porn on the sly? She's 19, a freshman in college, using her computer not only for her classes, and her job but porn obviously. She learns a lot that's for sure. She's seeing a therapist, not for this, but for her fear of finding the right man to marry but the sessions are always about the porn.

I learned a lot of new Yiddish words too. ( )

The concept that underlies this book is really interesting, how can a Hassidic teen turn herself over to the marriage mart when she has a porn addiction which flowered when she went to college and was exposed to the internet for the first time? Sadly 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 apposed 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, rounded up from a 2 because I learned new dirty words in Yiddish which is always a plus. ( )