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A review by khopeisz
August Is A Wicked Month by Edna O'Brien
4.0
I saw a review about this book being a “don’t have sex because you will get pregnant and you will die” type of book, but in my opinion, this isn’t the case.
I read this more as Ellen sort of coming of age, her youth stunted by not the best parents and the rigidity of Catholicism (we get a brief mention of the Magdalene laundries). After her first affair, Ellen says she feels young again, and so the novel follows her along as she seems to engage with the world with reckless teenaged abandon, though she is 28. There is a behavioral regression happening likely because she was never able to “act out” in the first place. The story ends a la Barbie’s (2023) ending, which I thought was an interesting and bittersweet moment: a woman in a clinic trying to do right by her sexual health.
Ellen is not likeable nor does she have a great outlook on the world, nor is she a great judgment of character. Which is where that sort of youthful broodiness and extremism come into play. O’Brien wrote Ellen’s interiority so well, and I found myself, while at a distance to some of Ellen’s ideologies, aligned with others.
There are derogatory terms made but these are usually made by morally ambiguous/inferior characters and these are sometimes reprimanded as well. I’m at a point in my reading where I don’t need a book, especially from the sixties, to be squeaky clean, as long as the derogatory terms aren’t excessive. I was just okay with how they were presented in this book.
O’Brien’s writing was so crisp and yet so lyrical. I had my pen in tow while reading this, ready to underline phrases and descriptors. It’s also WILD to me to contextualize this book. It speaks so openly about sex, and it is the first book I’ve EVER read that details a woman dealing with an STD, and doesn’t just gloss over it.
This book is just like very interesting. The context in which it was written, the voice that follows the main character, and the prose are all high marks for me. And yet, can I say it’s clear in its motivations? I’m not sure. I understand why it comes across as an anti-sex sort of book to some. But I really read it as a character study of a woman reverting to teenage extremisms that she did not experience in her youth, in order to cope with the unhappiness of her marital woes, and, ultimately, the unhappiness she has with herself. I took to it a little more personally, having been emotionally stunted by religion as well, when I came into my twenties, I “acted out” and fell into horrible, illicit affairs. At the end of those affairs, I did not resolve to return to a life of religion, but to return to myself in a new way. I feel like Ellen’s revelation is similar.
I read this more as Ellen sort of coming of age, her youth stunted by not the best parents and the rigidity of Catholicism (we get a brief mention of the Magdalene laundries). After her first affair, Ellen says she feels young again, and so the novel follows her along as she seems to engage with the world with reckless teenaged abandon, though she is 28. There is a behavioral regression happening likely because she was never able to “act out” in the first place. The story ends a la Barbie’s (2023) ending, which I thought was an interesting and bittersweet moment: a woman in a clinic trying to do right by her sexual health.
Ellen is not likeable nor does she have a great outlook on the world, nor is she a great judgment of character. Which is where that sort of youthful broodiness and extremism come into play. O’Brien wrote Ellen’s interiority so well, and I found myself, while at a distance to some of Ellen’s ideologies, aligned with others.
There are derogatory terms made but these are usually made by morally ambiguous/inferior characters and these are sometimes reprimanded as well. I’m at a point in my reading where I don’t need a book, especially from the sixties, to be squeaky clean, as long as the derogatory terms aren’t excessive. I was just okay with how they were presented in this book.
O’Brien’s writing was so crisp and yet so lyrical. I had my pen in tow while reading this, ready to underline phrases and descriptors. It’s also WILD to me to contextualize this book. It speaks so openly about sex, and it is the first book I’ve EVER read that details a woman dealing with an STD, and doesn’t just gloss over it.
This book is just like very interesting. The context in which it was written, the voice that follows the main character, and the prose are all high marks for me. And yet, can I say it’s clear in its motivations? I’m not sure. I understand why it comes across as an anti-sex sort of book to some. But I really read it as a character study of a woman reverting to teenage extremisms that she did not experience in her youth, in order to cope with the unhappiness of her marital woes, and, ultimately, the unhappiness she has with herself. I took to it a little more personally, having been emotionally stunted by religion as well, when I came into my twenties, I “acted out” and fell into horrible, illicit affairs. At the end of those affairs, I did not resolve to return to a life of religion, but to return to myself in a new way. I feel like Ellen’s revelation is similar.