The only way to ensure a powerful emotional reaction to Devory’s and other Jewish children’s sufferings was to provide a sharp contrast to it, which is why most of the book is spent building up the community and culture. Instead of feeling like an outsider, we quickly begin to feel like we are part of Gittel’s world: Eishes Chayil builds up a thoroughly complete Jewish world without resorting to “as you see, reader” explanations.ĭevory’s sexual abuse and subsequent suicide are at the core of this book, but the book deals less with the actual event itself than with its emotional aftermath on a bystander who is silenced by her community, unable to carry out justice for her friend. This is a community where arranged marriages before the age of 20 are still the norm, where men and women are separated and have clearly defined domestic roles…and they like that. Some of them, such as being suspicious of the goyim and rejecting anything that has to do with them, may seem oddly backwards to many readers however, HUSH is not merely a direct condemnation of the unchanging traditions that killed Devory, but a celebration also. You have grown up surrounded by these people, raised on the prejudices and traditions and beliefs of the community. It will bring you to your knees, laughing and crying, and is the type of book that you’ll want to pass around to everyone, regardless of their age.Įishes Chayil makes you feel as if you are truly part of Gittel’s Jewish community. HUSH, Eishes Chayil’s pseudonymously written debut novel, is an astonishing look into the highs and lows of an incredibly insular community. But when does the price of keeping one’s reputation become too high to pay? Show More refusal to sleep at home, the way her older brother came into her bed on the night Gittel slept over.īut in their intensely Jewish Brooklyn community, to speak of such things is to bring shame upon your family and lower your marriage prospects.

Hush by Eishes Chayil