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thatspeechgirl's review against another edition
1.0
I really wanted to like this book, but the fact that it took me over four months to complete is pretty indicative of how much I enjoyed it.
In the end I'm not really sure why I finished it, perhaps because it felt like I'd invested so much into it in the beginning. Whatever it was, I plodded along as though reading this book was a chore and found few positive things to say about it.
The structure of the novel is strange, and in my opinion, does not work. It begins with the first third of the book containing the main character's recollections of sleeping with many different men. It was repetitive and not particularly insightful.
The middle section was more or less like a normal narrative, and the final third of the book was a little more 'stream of consciousness,' weaving through the character's reflections on her past and advice given to her by a character that felt terribly out of place.
I didn't find this to be a quality text and frankly, it was a great disappointment.
In the end I'm not really sure why I finished it, perhaps because it felt like I'd invested so much into it in the beginning. Whatever it was, I plodded along as though reading this book was a chore and found few positive things to say about it.
The structure of the novel is strange, and in my opinion, does not work. It begins with the first third of the book containing the main character's recollections of sleeping with many different men. It was repetitive and not particularly insightful.
The middle section was more or less like a normal narrative, and the final third of the book was a little more 'stream of consciousness,' weaving through the character's reflections on her past and advice given to her by a character that felt terribly out of place.
I didn't find this to be a quality text and frankly, it was a great disappointment.
jayeless's review against another edition
3.0
It's easy to feel like this book is a guilty pleasure, especially in the first third where the narrator, Isabel, simply describes half a dozen or so times she had sex with complete strangers. Still, I don't think a book is necessarily frivolous just because it's all about sex, and so with this. Najat El Hachmi isn't afraid to describe sex that's really bad, just as she criticises the dominant Western sexual culture and discusses alienation quite powerfully.
The book does have a somewhat weird format; most of the book takes the form of Isabel talking to the middle-aged, male writer for whom she cleans. He advises her about what he thinks she should do, but that actual advice – anything he says to her between these monologues – isn't in the book. However, the second part is a bit different because there are sections in the third-person describing the writer's daily routines alongside Isabel's monologue, which are italicised for this part. It comes across a bit experimental and I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind it, but I didn't exactly mind, either.
Mostly, though, I love the audacity of, having already written the requisite "migrant experience story", deciding that the haters can go fuck themselves because you want to write about sex in Catalonia now. I mean, why not? But you still can't say it's that common! I'm excited for any further books El Hachmi puts out.
PS: here's The Independent's review of The Body Hunter. It's not bad, and for the most part I agree with it, but I do disagree with the idea that in the end it's a "conventional morality tale" (even if only "to some degree"), because in it "promiscuous sex does not bring happiness". It's not moralising to admit that for the majority of people it does not, and especially for the majority of heterosexual women, who have to deal with men who don't bother to make sex enjoyable for them and don't have much respect for them, either. I just found it realistic and logical that meaningless sex with strangers just didn't have much effect on Isabel's loneliness or alienation. But hey…
The book does have a somewhat weird format; most of the book takes the form of Isabel talking to the middle-aged, male writer for whom she cleans. He advises her about what he thinks she should do, but that actual advice – anything he says to her between these monologues – isn't in the book. However, the second part is a bit different because there are sections in the third-person describing the writer's daily routines alongside Isabel's monologue, which are italicised for this part. It comes across a bit experimental and I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind it, but I didn't exactly mind, either.
Mostly, though, I love the audacity of, having already written the requisite "migrant experience story", deciding that the haters can go fuck themselves because you want to write about sex in Catalonia now. I mean, why not? But you still can't say it's that common! I'm excited for any further books El Hachmi puts out.
PS: here's The Independent's review of The Body Hunter. It's not bad, and for the most part I agree with it, but I do disagree with the idea that in the end it's a "conventional morality tale" (even if only "to some degree"), because in it "promiscuous sex does not bring happiness". It's not moralising to admit that for the majority of people it does not, and especially for the majority of heterosexual women, who have to deal with men who don't bother to make sex enjoyable for them and don't have much respect for them, either. I just found it realistic and logical that meaningless sex with strangers just didn't have much effect on Isabel's loneliness or alienation. But hey…
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