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A review by thebobsphere
Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
5.0
Violet Kupersmith’s debut novel, Build Your House Around My Body has a lot of aspects which I gravitate to in a novel. The main one is a plot which consists of different characters and then are joined together by little clues until a full story forms. Thus, the novel becomes a sort puzzle.
The main protagonist of the novel is Winnie, a half States/Vietnamese who decides to move to her mother country to teach English. She soon discovers that the job is not really her thing and experimenting with different houses, partners and lifestyles in order to discover herself.
The plot consists of different elements; a missing rich girl, a French/Vietnamese man who has an unusual talent, a rubber plantation yard, a Frenchman with seven toes, a policeman and snakes, and that is just a small taste of the bizarre characters and situations found in this novel.
What makes Build Your House Around My Body such a fascinating story is that it mutates and changes shape. In some chapters there’s pure horror, some read like a Roald Dahl short story, others give a historical insight to what Vietnam went through from the colonisers to it’s urbanisation. Ultimately I saw the story as a metaphor for women breaking free from the patriarchy and surging ahead. This is especially seen in the novel’s last third. This book pushes boundaries and yet has flowing prose.
Surprising , shocking , playful and never ever predictable Build Your House Around My Body is a fantastic novel that is daring in every single way. This book challenges the reader with it’s twists and turns and at the same time asks the reader to notice the details which link up the different chapters. It also serves as a cautionary to those who violate certain rights (or rites for that matter). I will guarantee that you will come out a changed person. A tall order but with this book, definitely possible.
The main protagonist of the novel is Winnie, a half States/Vietnamese who decides to move to her mother country to teach English. She soon discovers that the job is not really her thing and experimenting with different houses, partners and lifestyles in order to discover herself.
The plot consists of different elements; a missing rich girl, a French/Vietnamese man who has an unusual talent, a rubber plantation yard, a Frenchman with seven toes, a policeman and snakes, and that is just a small taste of the bizarre characters and situations found in this novel.
What makes Build Your House Around My Body such a fascinating story is that it mutates and changes shape. In some chapters there’s pure horror, some read like a Roald Dahl short story, others give a historical insight to what Vietnam went through from the colonisers to it’s urbanisation. Ultimately I saw the story as a metaphor for women breaking free from the patriarchy and surging ahead. This is especially seen in the novel’s last third. This book pushes boundaries and yet has flowing prose.
Surprising , shocking , playful and never ever predictable Build Your House Around My Body is a fantastic novel that is daring in every single way. This book challenges the reader with it’s twists and turns and at the same time asks the reader to notice the details which link up the different chapters. It also serves as a cautionary to those who violate certain rights (or rites for that matter). I will guarantee that you will come out a changed person. A tall order but with this book, definitely possible.