Shmutz

Raizl’s abil­i­ty to exist in dual­i­ties, resist­ing easy answers and easy char­ac­ter­i­za­tions, is almost Tal­mu­dic in its rig­or. In par­tic­u­lar­ly inspired scenes at her col­lege ... This curios­i­ty and eager­ness to take in the world around her, while still allow­ing for the pos­si­bil­i­ty that her ulti­mate place may very well be with­in the com­mu­ni­ty she has always known, is what makes Rai­zl such a com­pelling nar­ra­tor. Berliner’s uncom­pro­mis­ing choice to fill Shmutz with Yid­dish ver­nac­u­lar also plants the read­er firm­ly in Raizl’s per­spec­tive. Rai­zl may not be in con­trol of her pornog­ra­phy habit, or the mon­ey she makes at her job in the dia­mond dis­trict, or even — depend­ing on the reader’s per­spec­tive, and Berliner’s gen­er­ous prose allows for as many dual­i­ties in the read­er as she fos­ters in her nar­ra­tor — the way reli­gion influ­ences the way she moves through the world. But she is in con­trol of her narrative ... There are a myr­i­ad of pos­si­bil­i­ties for mean­ing, so many of them out­lined in Berliner’s sharply obser­vant nov­el. Nev­er­the­less, Rai­zl is giv­en the option that so many women — Hasidic or oth­er­wise — are often denied: the abil­i­ty to choose that mean­ing for herself.

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.

... memorable ... 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.