Book review: "Hush" by "Eishes Chayil"
Feb. 19th, 2011 07:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuThanks to jadelennox's recommendation, I took "Hush" out of the library and read it this past week.
"Hush" is a fictionalized narrative based on the horrific reality of child rape among Chassidim, and the cultural insistence that "such things don't happen here" and the ostracization of those who break the black-hat line of silence. Those who read the Failed Messiah blog will be sadly aware that such things happen. So for the author to write such a book, even under a pseudonym, is itself an amazing act of courage.
It is all the more remarkable, then, that this book succeeds as a work of narrative. The characters are compelling even as we react in horror to their version of reality. The depiction of a world almost but not quite like our own is vivid. The voice of a nine-year-old girl who alternates between certainty that she knows how everything in the world works and doubting everything she's been taught is believable. The pacing, while occasionally uneven, is pretty good.
And most importantly, the end of the book avoids the two obvious traps: it is neither overly maudlin nor neatly pat. (It does fall briefly into the third obvious trap, which is that it gets briefly meta; I'm not sure that could have been avoided.) And while parts of the denouement surprised me, they were within character. And I cried.
This is a must-read for many of the people who follow my blog. It is a powerful picture of certain segments of Chassidus and their worldview (completely aside from the subject of abuse). It is a damning indictment of the silence that has enabled rapists and abusers to get away with it. And it is a well-written book. (Obviously, given the subject matter, this may be "triggery" for some readers; I'm not qualified to provide any additional guidance on that point.)
"Hush" is a fictionalized narrative based on the horrific reality of child rape among Chassidim, and the cultural insistence that "such things don't happen here" and the ostracization of those who break the black-hat line of silence. Those who read the Failed Messiah blog will be sadly aware that such things happen. So for the author to write such a book, even under a pseudonym, is itself an amazing act of courage.
It is all the more remarkable, then, that this book succeeds as a work of narrative. The characters are compelling even as we react in horror to their version of reality. The depiction of a world almost but not quite like our own is vivid. The voice of a nine-year-old girl who alternates between certainty that she knows how everything in the world works and doubting everything she's been taught is believable. The pacing, while occasionally uneven, is pretty good.
And most importantly, the end of the book avoids the two obvious traps: it is neither overly maudlin nor neatly pat. (It does fall briefly into the third obvious trap, which is that it gets briefly meta; I'm not sure that could have been avoided.) And while parts of the denouement surprised me, they were within character. And I cried.
This is a must-read for many of the people who follow my blog. It is a powerful picture of certain segments of Chassidus and their worldview (completely aside from the subject of abuse). It is a damning indictment of the silence that has enabled rapists and abusers to get away with it. And it is a well-written book. (Obviously, given the subject matter, this may be "triggery" for some readers; I'm not qualified to provide any additional guidance on that point.)