Brazen, by Julia Haart (2022)
Brazen is a whiny memoir about a woman who was born in Moscow, Russia to secular parents. As a young child, her parents immigrated to America, where they became ultimately joined a large ultra-Orthodox community in New York and were essentially cutoff from the modern world. Later, as an adult, she left the community to enter the world of fashion and become a shoe designer.
As her family became indoctrinated into the ultra-Orthodox community, Haart was taught to believe that any deviation from the community’s norms would incur the wrath of God. Because her family was not always religious, her parents were concerned about making a good marriage match. Although she had some say in her marriage partner, Haart essentially married a young man she had met only 3 times prior to the wedding. They had little in common and he expected his wife to work and keep the home while he studied Torah.
She described how, at age 19 and with no formal higher education, she taught 17- and 18-year old girls in her community. The education was limited to religious instruction, as subjects such as math and science were forbidden. Eventually, her husband gets an outside job and the family moved to an Orthodox community in Atlanta for a few years.
Somehow, the family has money and Haart describes the high-end clothing that she wears, after altering them to conform to the stringencies of the community – long skirts, high necks, long sleeves so no skin is showing.
After Haart left the community, my interest in her life began to wane. She wanted to be a shoe designer. Suddenly, everyone she met wanted to both help her and take advantage of her. She admitted that she was naïve to the outside world, but still … She also describes in cringy detail her sexual encounters. Suddenly, everyone wants to have sex with her, and she often seems to have no objection to their wishes.
What she left out, however, is the reaction of the community once she left. She mentions one instance in which she was invited to a family wedding but was never invited to a family event after that. She implies that her children have left the community but doesn’t explain what and how that happened. One daughter married young before Haart had left the community.
The book could have used some better editing. Some of her accounts of biblical stories seem a bit “off.”
I read the book to the end, but found it very whiny and egocentric.
Read: March 25, 2023
2.5 Stars
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