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katrinasorochinsky's review against another edition
3.0
hard to follow at times, takes a special kind of person to finish it
revengeofthepencil's review against another edition
1.0
This one was a slog. I know it's "experimental fiction" and I'm supposed to be patient and let it re-program my brain a little, but I just couldn't find a way in. The book is (more or less) about a group of women in Ohio who live in an isolated compound where they perform behavior modification experiments to eliminate all movement and emotion. The story is narrated mainly by a character named Ben Marcus whose mother is part of the group (cult?) and whose father may or may not be buried alive in the back yard. Trust me, this sounds a lot more interesting than it actually is. Parts of it were well written, parts of it were hilarious, but mostly it was just mess that left me feeling like I had no idea what was going on or even what ideas the author was trying to get across. The next book I read is going to need some semblance of a plot. A few characters would be nice too.
servemethesky's review against another edition
4.0
I can say without a doubt that I’ve never read a book quite like Notable American Women. Marcus’s writing is deeply strange—at times funny, at times deeply disturbing. You’re thrown right into this unusual world with a disorienting introduction from Ben Marcus (the character’s) father, in which he tells you his son is a liar and not to believe a word he says. There’s an uncanny effect that comes from the author and the protagonist sharing a name, I can’t quite describe it but it adds even more strangeness.
The final pages are written from the mother’s perspective as a scathing letter to the father. What lies in the middle is bizarre and perplexing- historic dates in the Silentist movement, names of women and their meanings, Ben’s experiences growing up in this movement, and descriptions of some of their core beliefs. In this world, motion is violent. Silence is a healing choice. Emotions are frowned upon. Silence and gestures and fainting can cleanse you of unwanted emotions.
Everything is bizarre, sometimes horrifying, often sad, but so peculiarly, also hilarious in some moments!
I really don’t know what to make of this book. It’s a lot to puzzle over, and I’m sure you could glean more and more from subsequent readings. It’s not the kind of book where you fall in love with the characters or the story moves you, but it’s incredibly inventive and unique.
The final pages are written from the mother’s perspective as a scathing letter to the father. What lies in the middle is bizarre and perplexing- historic dates in the Silentist movement, names of women and their meanings, Ben’s experiences growing up in this movement, and descriptions of some of their core beliefs. In this world, motion is violent. Silence is a healing choice. Emotions are frowned upon. Silence and gestures and fainting can cleanse you of unwanted emotions.
Everything is bizarre, sometimes horrifying, often sad, but so peculiarly, also hilarious in some moments!
I really don’t know what to make of this book. It’s a lot to puzzle over, and I’m sure you could glean more and more from subsequent readings. It’s not the kind of book where you fall in love with the characters or the story moves you, but it’s incredibly inventive and unique.
ajsterkel's review against another edition
2.0
I saw this book on a list of experimental novels, and the premise immediately got my attention: The main character (also named Ben Marcus) is living on a farm that has been taken over by a group of women who are trying to stay completely still and silent. The women imprison Ben’s meddling father in an underground cell and use Ben and his sister for strange behavior-altering experiments. The women speak in an all-vowel language, ride around on sleds to avoid walking, faint voluntarily, and brew water.
Since I found this book on a list of experimental literature, I knew that it would be avant-garde. And, it certainly is. It doesn’t read like a traditional novel. There is no plot. The “chapters” are a series of loosely connected scenes, letters, contracts, names, fictional history lessons, and other oddities. Nothing is explained. The reader just has to go along with the surreal weirdness.
The writing and world-building are the best parts of the book. Like the synopsis says, the author truly does invent new uses for words. The writing is refreshing and unlike anything I’ve read in a long time. It’s engrossing. The reader can easily picture the bizarre, frightening, and hilarious practices of the silent women. The book has a few literal laugh-out-loud moments. It catches you off-guard at times.
Even though Notable American Women intrigued me enough that I read the whole thing, I didn’t actually enjoy it. Getting through it required a lot of effort on my part. I had to force myself to pick it up and keep reading. Some of the chapters are too long, and I got bored with them. I was also confused a lot in the beginning. Actually, I’m still confused. I can’t claim that I fully understand this book. I have the feeling that I’m just not smart enough for it. Maybe the author is laughing at my stupidity right now . . .
Since I found this book on a list of experimental literature, I knew that it would be avant-garde. And, it certainly is. It doesn’t read like a traditional novel. There is no plot. The “chapters” are a series of loosely connected scenes, letters, contracts, names, fictional history lessons, and other oddities. Nothing is explained. The reader just has to go along with the surreal weirdness.
The writing and world-building are the best parts of the book. Like the synopsis says, the author truly does invent new uses for words. The writing is refreshing and unlike anything I’ve read in a long time. It’s engrossing. The reader can easily picture the bizarre, frightening, and hilarious practices of the silent women. The book has a few literal laugh-out-loud moments. It catches you off-guard at times.
Even though Notable American Women intrigued me enough that I read the whole thing, I didn’t actually enjoy it. Getting through it required a lot of effort on my part. I had to force myself to pick it up and keep reading. Some of the chapters are too long, and I got bored with them. I was also confused a lot in the beginning. Actually, I’m still confused. I can’t claim that I fully understand this book. I have the feeling that I’m just not smart enough for it. Maybe the author is laughing at my stupidity right now . . .
lucasmiller's review against another edition
3.0
i liked this book. words are used differently than i normally use them. whenever i read "experimental" fiction i am worried that i am not "getting it." but then, that's why i like to read. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially if narrative isn't the only reason they like books.
matthewcpeck's review against another edition
4.0
Ben Marcus's debut novel defies convention in form, style, and content. There's family ("Ben Marcus" and his parents) at the center, living on a farmhouse-turned-compound in a dystopian Akron. Mrs. Marcus has come under the influence of a visionary cult leader named Jane Dark, who espouses a philosophy of extreme self-denial where absolute silence and stillness are seen as the ideal mode of existence. Mr. Marcus, meanwhile, has been exiled to an underground prison cell in the back forty, while young Ben has mandated sexual intercourse with a Dark's female 'Silentist' followers for breeding purposes.
This isn't presented in any linear, storylike fashion, though. The book starts with an introduction/caveat from the father, and it ends with a letter from the mother. Between these are three sections narrated by "Ben", and they range, stylistically, from instruction manual to almanac to memoir and beyond, immersing the reader in the book's bizarre universe. This is a world where human language can act as a physical substance that can bludgeon, or be absorbed into cloth. As in his previous collection "The Age Of Wire And String", Marcus experiments with English, creating his own jargon and endowing people, objects and weather with properties that that don't rightly belong. It's not just whimsy, though: it's written calmly and clearly. Sometimes it made me chuckle out loud, especially at the 'instructions' for reading the book, near the start (it makes more sense if recited through megaphone under moonlight, but reading in a German accent will "induce crouching"). And then it's deeply disturbing, haunted, like the recurring saga of Ben's sister, the subject of a family experiment that has her called by different names over a period of time, and shedding a husk of skin at the end of each interval.
The longish ending chapter, written as a final letter from mother to father, has a markedly different tone than the rest of the novel, and manages to be genuinely heartbreaking, if not as blazingly original and weirdly fun as the preceding pages. And it really is an addictive read, once you acclimate to its rhythms. When I was deep into the book, the picayune details of my daily life stood out with a new strangeness: instructions posted on a fax machine seemed like an incantation, and the fact that my work PC reads my fingerprint seemed suddenly frightening.
"Notable American Women" reminded me variously of Haruki Murakami, Flann O'Brien and William Gass, but it's truly an anomaly. It made 'normal' novels seem so stubborn and narrow-minded, and I enthusiastically recommend it to those that appreciate the varied wonders of the English language.
This isn't presented in any linear, storylike fashion, though. The book starts with an introduction/caveat from the father, and it ends with a letter from the mother. Between these are three sections narrated by "Ben", and they range, stylistically, from instruction manual to almanac to memoir and beyond, immersing the reader in the book's bizarre universe. This is a world where human language can act as a physical substance that can bludgeon, or be absorbed into cloth. As in his previous collection "The Age Of Wire And String", Marcus experiments with English, creating his own jargon and endowing people, objects and weather with properties that that don't rightly belong. It's not just whimsy, though: it's written calmly and clearly. Sometimes it made me chuckle out loud, especially at the 'instructions' for reading the book, near the start (it makes more sense if recited through megaphone under moonlight, but reading in a German accent will "induce crouching"). And then it's deeply disturbing, haunted, like the recurring saga of Ben's sister, the subject of a family experiment that has her called by different names over a period of time, and shedding a husk of skin at the end of each interval.
The longish ending chapter, written as a final letter from mother to father, has a markedly different tone than the rest of the novel, and manages to be genuinely heartbreaking, if not as blazingly original and weirdly fun as the preceding pages. And it really is an addictive read, once you acclimate to its rhythms. When I was deep into the book, the picayune details of my daily life stood out with a new strangeness: instructions posted on a fax machine seemed like an incantation, and the fact that my work PC reads my fingerprint seemed suddenly frightening.
"Notable American Women" reminded me variously of Haruki Murakami, Flann O'Brien and William Gass, but it's truly an anomaly. It made 'normal' novels seem so stubborn and narrow-minded, and I enthusiastically recommend it to those that appreciate the varied wonders of the English language.
anatomydetective's review against another edition
2.0
Part of me wants to give this novel one star because it has some of the most off-putting content I've ever come across, and the author is very obviously using this content to try to show how innovative and daring he is. Yet there are parts of this book that actually ARE innovative and daring, but they are not the moments when the author is doing his best to press the readers' buttons. Almost everything sexual in this novel seemed designed to show that the author was flaunting tradition in some way, but it's been done already and done better. The Marquis de Sade has a lot on Ben Marcus, that's for sure.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, I'm not even sure which, this novel had absolute gems buried in it. Finely honed sentences, interesting imagines, original ideas. They were all there, but far too few and far between. Perhaps a team of good editors might have saved this novel, but it left me feeling that I'd wasted my time. At least someone on PaperbackSwap wants it.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, I'm not even sure which, this novel had absolute gems buried in it. Finely honed sentences, interesting imagines, original ideas. They were all there, but far too few and far between. Perhaps a team of good editors might have saved this novel, but it left me feeling that I'd wasted my time. At least someone on PaperbackSwap wants it.
crispymerola's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Truly one of the oddest things I've ever read. The world building is terrifying and hilarious in equal measure, which produces such an eerie feeling in me. For that experience alone, I found this thing to be worth reading.
The story is about Ben Marcus, a boy cheekily named after the author. He lives in a feminist cult in Ohio that's obsessed with achieving perfect stillness - no breathing, no eating, no emoting whatsoever. He's used for breeding and is completely and utterly neglected otherwise.
The amount of bizarre (yet logically consistent) rituals and procedures Marcus spins from this premise is always astounding, sometimes engaging - and often way too much. The opening and closing monologues by Dad and Mom did so little for the exposition, and frankly, the ideas expressed within were repetitious enough to give me PTSD flashbacks to Barthelme.
Regardless, this was a trip - an inconsistent, uncompromising, fascinating experience.
The story is about Ben Marcus, a boy cheekily named after the author. He lives in a feminist cult in Ohio that's obsessed with achieving perfect stillness - no breathing, no eating, no emoting whatsoever. He's used for breeding and is completely and utterly neglected otherwise.
The amount of bizarre (yet logically consistent) rituals and procedures Marcus spins from this premise is always astounding, sometimes engaging - and often way too much. The opening and closing monologues by Dad and Mom did so little for the exposition, and frankly, the ideas expressed within were repetitious enough to give me PTSD flashbacks to Barthelme.
Regardless, this was a trip - an inconsistent, uncompromising, fascinating experience.