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A review by tanzreads
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
5.0
You know when you read a book and it changes your perspective on what a good book is? Like, oh. This book broke the scale. Maybe it exists on its own axis?
"For the straight person who wants to be my friend, you must do two things: First, you must further that I'm a lesbian. Second, you must never forget that I'm a lesbian." (Which Machado footnotes, is a paraphrasing of the Black lesbian Pat Parker, who directs a white person to forget & never forget she is Black.) This is the theme that is revisted in the memoir again and again - that abuse in the lesbian community is no different than the abuse in the straight world, and yet can never be the same. The eyes of others who perceive the abuse in a queer relationship as if it should be similar to the heteronormative - the law & the straights (and perhaps, the queer community too) wants to find the butch abusing the femme. Wants clear lines. Wants black and white. All tangled with the desperate necessity to be perceived well by the straights.
This book took me apart. It was stunning. What an incredible way to weave memoir, with almost an essayist style of writing, and fill it with chapters that effortlessly flicked between an account of her experiences, and metaphorical retellings that ripped me apart. The story of the squid. The choose your own adventure. The history of abuse and its perception in the queer & straight community. All presented between snapshots of her life with the woman in the dreamhouse.
I am honestly stunned. I've never read a book like this, certainly not a memoir like this either. And I may never find a book like this again. It was incredible.
I adored the chapter titles - I don't normally read them, if I'm honest, but I savored them in this book. The added praxis. They set the scene, immediately. Machado did more with a chapter title than I could fathom.
The use of footnotes was similarly masterful
Each footnote was a frame and point of reference, and it weaved an immense essay and citations quality into this story - but this book was no essay at all. It must be read to understand how compelling a footnote can be.
What an amazing, incredible book. Towards the end I slowed my reading pace because I just didn't want it to end, and I bawled when it did. This was brilliant and I cannot recommend it enough.
"For the straight person who wants to be my friend, you must do two things: First, you must further that I'm a lesbian. Second, you must never forget that I'm a lesbian." (Which Machado footnotes, is a paraphrasing of the Black lesbian Pat Parker, who directs a white person to forget & never forget she is Black.) This is the theme that is revisted in the memoir again and again - that abuse in the lesbian community is no different than the abuse in the straight world, and yet can never be the same. The eyes of others who perceive the abuse in a queer relationship as if it should be similar to the heteronormative - the law & the straights (and perhaps, the queer community too) wants to find the butch abusing the femme. Wants clear lines. Wants black and white. All tangled with the desperate necessity to be perceived well by the straights.
This book took me apart. It was stunning. What an incredible way to weave memoir, with almost an essayist style of writing, and fill it with chapters that effortlessly flicked between an account of her experiences, and metaphorical retellings that ripped me apart. The story of the squid. The choose your own adventure. The history of abuse and its perception in the queer & straight community. All presented between snapshots of her life with the woman in the dreamhouse.
I am honestly stunned. I've never read a book like this, certainly not a memoir like this either. And I may never find a book like this again. It was incredible.
I adored the chapter titles - I don't normally read them, if I'm honest, but I savored them in this book. The added praxis. They set the scene, immediately. Machado did more with a chapter title than I could fathom.
The use of footnotes was similarly masterful
Each footnote was a frame and point of reference, and it weaved an immense essay and citations quality into this story - but this book was no essay at all. It must be read to understand how compelling a footnote can be.
What an amazing, incredible book. Towards the end I slowed my reading pace because I just didn't want it to end, and I bawled when it did. This was brilliant and I cannot recommend it enough.