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A review by stefhyena
Melting Moments by Anna Goldsworthy
2.0
I got through it. A sentimental waste of good writing ability. I hung on for about the first half thinking it was going somewhere, thinking it would interrupt it's own phallocentrism and compulsory heterosexuality. I don't mean go fully queer but just let Ruby centre herself and female relationships for a change.
It beginnings in a frustrating wedding night that is given us in an amount of detail not spent on things like birth, careers or pretty much anything apart from marital sex (and voyeurism) in the novel. This centres the book on the disappointment to be found in penises, the eternal deferral of women's desire which nevertheless seems to relentlessly centre back on men. Ruby has a job at one point - about a paragraph is spent on that. But Ruby making herself beautiful for faceless, personality less women and especially for men is at the centre as is Ruby putting herself last to look after Arthur's desires and tropishly horrible mother and Ruby returning again and again to dreams of Bill (I think it was). There is reflection in the book about what is a woman and what is a man and the conclusions are very unsatisfactory even for the generation they are concluded for.
I am not arguing that women did not have a life much like Ruby's centred on the family, on the house, on domesticity. I just argue with the lack of art, culture, literature, career, philosophy, spirituality or anything else- there is a garden but even that seems more domestic than an interest. Surely her inner self should have glimpses of something other than unselfish wife vs potential cheating wife (which she did not attempt to enact). I also wonder where are any female relationships other than mother-daughter? Why is her sister side-lined so early? Why are her friends just foils for meeting men or showing off her superior beauty? Why after the horrible mother in law dies must the next potential female relationship (the neighbour) also become one of enmity? This reads like a long-winded advert for the phallocentric life with it's sentimental conclusions always that disappointment is OK because it is infused with love and with making Eva's challenges of the status quo both failures and short-lived.
We hear of Eva's marriage and child. She had given up her career for these. Very late in the book it is mentioned that she'd gone back to her career. That's an afterthought not the focus, Ruby keeps musing back to Ned. What of Charlie? Does he have a partner or children? We are not told. One sentence looks like it might be steering us toward him being gay but probably that was just my wish to interrupt the stereotypical view for a second. We are simply not told about his personal life because men are defined (in the book) by deeds/occupations. Women are defined by who they marry or fail to be married to and who they beget.
I do think the writing itself was good and I was so wishing for a book set in Adelaide. I have read a few books of Adelaide and they are always so backward looking (ideologically). I'd be keen for a progressive or speculative book set in Adelaide but this wasn't it.
It beginnings in a frustrating wedding night that is given us in an amount of detail not spent on things like birth, careers or pretty much anything apart from marital sex (and voyeurism) in the novel. This centres the book on the disappointment to be found in penises, the eternal deferral of women's desire which nevertheless seems to relentlessly centre back on men. Ruby has a job at one point - about a paragraph is spent on that. But Ruby making herself beautiful for faceless, personality less women and especially for men is at the centre as is Ruby putting herself last to look after Arthur's desires and tropishly horrible mother and Ruby returning again and again to dreams of Bill (I think it was). There is reflection in the book about what is a woman and what is a man and the conclusions are very unsatisfactory even for the generation they are concluded for.
I am not arguing that women did not have a life much like Ruby's centred on the family, on the house, on domesticity. I just argue with the lack of art, culture, literature, career, philosophy, spirituality or anything else- there is a garden but even that seems more domestic than an interest. Surely her inner self should have glimpses of something other than unselfish wife vs potential cheating wife (which she did not attempt to enact). I also wonder where are any female relationships other than mother-daughter? Why is her sister side-lined so early? Why are her friends just foils for meeting men or showing off her superior beauty? Why after the horrible mother in law dies must the next potential female relationship (the neighbour) also become one of enmity? This reads like a long-winded advert for the phallocentric life with it's sentimental conclusions always that disappointment is OK because it is infused with love and with making Eva's challenges of the status quo both failures and short-lived.
We hear of Eva's marriage and child. She had given up her career for these. Very late in the book it is mentioned that she'd gone back to her career. That's an afterthought not the focus, Ruby keeps musing back to Ned. What of Charlie? Does he have a partner or children? We are not told. One sentence looks like it might be steering us toward him being gay but probably that was just my wish to interrupt the stereotypical view for a second. We are simply not told about his personal life because men are defined (in the book) by deeds/occupations. Women are defined by who they marry or fail to be married to and who they beget.
I do think the writing itself was good and I was so wishing for a book set in Adelaide. I have read a few books of Adelaide and they are always so backward looking (ideologically). I'd be keen for a progressive or speculative book set in Adelaide but this wasn't it.