Hush

Hush by Eishes Chayil, Walker Books for Young Readers, 2010, 368 pp, ISBN: 0802720887

Recap:
Gittel saw her best friend Devory being raped when they were both only 9 years old. But because Gittel, a Chassidic Jew, had been raised in such a sheltered world, she truly could not understand what she was seeing. Devory tried everything she could to cry for help - just short of revealing the whole truth about the nightmare her life had become - but no one was willing to listen. When Devory simply could not take the abuse any longer, she used Gittel's purple jump rope to hang herself in the shower.


Bound by her ultra-Orthodox community's code of loyalty, Gittel was forced to stay silent about the truth behind Devory's suicide. Now, years later, Gittel is haunted by visions of her childhood best friend. Will she ever find the courage to try and make things right?

Review:
I honestly am not sure that I can do this book justice. Hush is an absolutely remarkable piece of literature. As I worked my way through Gittel and Devory's story, I found myself constantly thinking about the two girls and their way of life that was so drastically different from my own. Initially, I felt sure that the lifestyle Gittel described had to be pure fiction. In 2008 could there really be a whole community of New Yorkers who don't watch TV or touch electricity on Sundays? A community where arranged marriages are still the rule and no one is allowed to know about sex until they are engaged? A community where faith is so valued that all wives are full-time working mothers so that their husbands can be full-time scholars of the Torah? It all sounded so foreign, and yet that world is alive and thriving in America today.


It literally broke my heart to read about Devory's desperation. Yes, she is a fictional character, but in real life there are so many others like her - children who are sexually abused by family members and close friends, and who are unable to tell the truth about their situation. Through it all, I pitied Gittel. She could not be blamed for her naivety, and had spent her entire life being conditioned to value her community above all else. She knew that she should tell the truth, but in doing so she stood the risk of losing everything.


Because of Hush, I cannot stop thinking about some of my own students. How many children do you know whom adults describe as "crazy" or "out of control?" That was how Devory's parents and teachers referred to her. She was "wild," a "bad influence." Now the faces of those real-life students are on a permanent scroll in my mind. What is truly causing them to behave that way? Why are they trying so desperately to get our attention?


Lately there has been so much talk about the darkness in YA literature. Hush was a remarkably powerful reminder that when we are a witness to darkness, we must do everything we can to shed light. There is no excuse for silence or secrecy. 


In the Authors Notes, author Eishes Chayil writes,

"We didn't need the outside world. We had our own. We published our own newspapers, wrote our own literature, and put on our own plays - separate for men and women of course. We attended Orthodox Chassidic schools, spoke Yiddish first and English second, covered ourselves with modest clothing, and never ever talked or played with anyone but our own kind. We built walls and built them high. The walls would keep the gentiles and their terrifying world far away. The walls would protect us and shelter us - and as we built them higher, thicker, wider, we forgot to look inside. We forgot that the greatest enemies always grow from within."

Eishes Chayil is a pen name that means "Woman of Valor" in Yiddish. I am thankful to Chayil for choosing to be a woman of valor who looks within, who speaks the truth, who sheds light. I know she will help others to do the same.

Recommendation:
Right now, I want to recommend Hush to everyone I see. I literally cannot stop talking about it. I believe that Hush will require a certain level of maturity from its readers, and based on some adult content, I would recommend it for high school age readers and up.

Quotable Quotes:
In spite of the serious content, there were actually quite a few humorous passages in Hush. Striking a perfect balance between levity and truth, Gittel was a thoroughly enjoyable narrator.

"Devory and I strongly disagreed about adults. She thought it was fun being a grown-up; I said it was exhausting. Adults had to smile all the time. From the moment they walked out of the kitchen, no self-respecting adult dared not to smile... When they wanted to cry, they smiled. When they wanted to be alone, they smiled... They all smiled and shook hands and asked each other how they were doing, and then walked away and cried, and frowned, and were angry... I always knew how lucky I was that Hashem made me a child."

"I grabbed the candy and stared at it. A candy from a priest. It could only be poison. In the stories, the evil priest always gave poison to the Jewish children who wouldn't convert. I held up the candy and peered into it suspiciously. It looked good."

"'How dare you go against the Rabbonim?' Surie screamed at me. 'How can you do this to them? That is not the way an Eishes Chayil acts. A Woman of Valor does things quietly - at least anonymously...' and she slammed down the phone. 

Yankel comforted me. 'You are the Eishes Chayil,' he said. 'You are the real one. You are the only one protecting the children, and that is what a real mother does.'"