A review by notinjersey
Shmutz by Felicia Berliner

5.0

When I first heard about the book Shmutz by Felicia Berliner, I was concerned that it would be yet another story that leans into the “religious Jews are oppressed” trope, as this is a book about a young women living in a very strict Hasidic community. I was pleased that while life in the community is shown as sheltered and not without difficulties, Raizl did not want to leave. Rather, she wanted to stay and be herself within the community. ⁣I appreciated the description of how, when Raizl received a computer for school, she was able to stumble into inappropriate internet content. She didn’t set out to find it but her natural curiosity about the things she was never taught led her there. It was understandable how an addiction could easily develop. I thought her discovery of her sexuality was important and portrayed positively. I was left wondering how she will move on from her internet use and whether her husband will understand her needs. The ending was a little ambiguous and makes us wonder about how Raizl is doing now. ⁣As a side note, I have seen this book compared to Milk Fed, and while they both include religious Jews, I felt that this book portrayed the community more accurately, while Milk Fed was misleading when it explained some of the laws. This does have a similar feel to that book though. ⁣There is a lot of Yiddish in this book and it does contain a glossary, but I was impressed with how much of it I understood! Shmutz itself is a Yiddish word meaning dirt.