Yid Lit: Rachel Shukert
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
In her new memoir, “Everything is Going to Be Great,” author and performer Rachel Shukert travels to Europe after college to “escape the weight of [her] own expectations,” which involves no small measure of drinking, gallivanting and sleeping with (non-American) boys.
Amidst a ribald trek of self-discovery, Shukert skewers what she dubs a new paternalism — the idea that women shouldn’t travel abroad alone — with pity sidebars and lists like “Are You About To Be Sex Trafficked?” and even a “Foreskin FAQ.” The trip itself leads to Shukert meeting her Jewish husband, a story she tells through her grandmother’s pleased shrieking on the phone line.
We had good fun when she visited. She’s like a traveling one-woman party, as evidenced by this video in which she gives tips for nice Jewish girls going abroad. In this week’s Yid Lit Podcast, we discuss the Jewish foreskin obsession, women writers sowing oats and the inescapable train wreck that is becoming who you are.
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