Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Das Archiv der Träume

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Das Archiv der Träume by Carmen Maria Machado

145 reviews

onamoonbeam's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

oh! so that's why this author's famous! moment. read a few excerpts of this for a creative writing class and loved them months ago, finally got around to reading the whole thing. the mastery machado has over language is. absurd. somehow lots of colloquial language to illustrate swathes of emotion and history that will be rattling around in my mind for who knows how long. she also likes the word eponymous, which i will now actually remember the definition of.
notable bits

as a trope lover, the fact the memoir is formatted like this at all is already fantastic, not to mention. literally everything else
the three deja vu chapters are marked in my book, and i flipped between them, reading their corresponding sentences in order in awe of oh. everything in this book is put together with intention, and this is just a small piece of it.
the choose your own adventure part with the
(multiple!!) pages that say smth like 'you should not be on this page, there was no way to get to it with the choices provided. you wanted to get out/you can't get out, this already happened/were you looking for a way out' ARE SO GOOD i love when authors use their mediums to the fullest because in what other format could that exist? it reminded me of some pieces of interactive fiction, where choice being given and then taken away, or pointing out the illusion of choice, is more impactful than starting out with no choice to begin with.
the use of footnotes in reference to folklore and foreshadowing is *chef's kiss* both opposite and adjacent to the princess bride to me. some of them, esp the one of 'mother killing her child' i gasped at
pointing out that the language we use to describe abuse is so trite that horrible experiences seem banal, then pointing out a specific experience
magical realism almost? of her experiences after the breakup, shrinking and drowning in tears and finding solace in animals
"We deserve to have our wrongdoing represented as much as our heroism, because when we refuse wrongdoing as a possibility for a group of people, we refuse their humanity" AAAGH
explicit separation of "you" and "i" in one chapter that continues for the rest of the book, works to 1. separate her experiences at the time of the relationship and at other points in her life 2. a marker of her growth 3. everything becomes deeply personal to the reader. you are running/dreaming/hiding. do you understand, now?
"Part of the problem was, as a weird fat girl, you felt lucky." the elementary school me is pounding the floor of my heart, ie. when I read that I gripped the book a little tighter
HOUSE AND SPACE METAPHORS

something about this is peak english major to me, and i mean that as a compliment. guess i gotta go read her body and other parties now

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amandarosexox's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

4.0

The use of different techniques/limitations/inspirations for each chapter was very inspired and well executed, making the book even more engaging for the reader.

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jazhandz's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense medium-paced

5.0

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lpogo16's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Machado had a lot of courage in talking about her story and a lot of heart in telling the story of other queer women. This book really opened my eyes to a topic I never thought to look at head on.

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klsreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

In the Dream House is a masterpiece. Told in vignettes structured around literature tropes, this memoir follows the rise and fall of a profoundly abusive relationship. Machado is brave, vulnerable, and unflinchingly honest as she exposes the abuse she suffered across a 2 year relationship with another woman. She asks: if we view queer relationships as utopia divorced from patriarchy and hierarchy, are we being homophobic? Are lesbians not humans - complex, hurting, and capable of inflicting extreme harm? If we flatten a group of people into a monolith, we dehumanize them. This book is a necessary addition to the growing work on the incidence of abuse in queer relationships.

I've never read anything quite like this - I loved the vignette narrative structure. The book moved quickly because most sections were short. A couple of the tropes dragged on for me/didn't hit 100%, but I was enthralled and could hardly put it down. A few standouts for me - "Dream House as Deja Vu" (x3), "Dream House as Queer Villainy" (!!!), "Dream House as Bluebeard", "Dream House as the River Lethe", "Dream House as Choose Your Own Adventure" ...... ok, I have to stop or I'm going to quote half of this work.

Even more wild: I was in Iowa City as an undergrad during the events of this book. Did I see Carmen and the Woman from the Dream House at a coffee shop, at Obama's speech, in a bookstore? It makes me shiver, the ways people suffer out of view.

Brilliant. Carmen Maria Machado is an absolute force and a genius of prose and innovative structure. I HIGHLY recommend this book, but mind the CW's. Machado doesn't shy away from the gore at the heart of her story.

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ellornaslibrary's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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kiatlyns's review against another edition

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Well-written, but I went in blind (book club book) and the events detailed in this book are perfect mixture of my worst nightmares that I would prefer not to relive. If DV, toxic poly situationships, or same-sex DV are any of your triggers I would not recommend you read this book.

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