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vika 's review for:
After Sappho
by Selby Wynn Schwartz
I bought this book a few years ago when it first came out and couldn't get into it. One of my best friends read it this summer and convinced me to give it another go. I'm so glad I did. There's no real narrative to the text but once I surrendered to the writing, I was swept away by the beauty and power of the prose.
I find the idea of "speculative biography" fascinating and I thought Schwartz did a great job imagining the lives of these women. It was so fun to see how all these women I've studied were interrelated. The narration coming from a Greek chorus-esque group of sapphics was very well done. I felt myself part of a great (overlooked) history. I'm writing my dissertation about reproduction and writing and this book feels very related to that--a rethinking of the family and lineage without biological relation. Sappho as matriarch, Sappho as potentiality...this book has really got me thinking.
I found it an especially beautiful reframing of fragmentation. Recasting the missing lines not as lack or as something missing but as potential for future descendants--gorgeous. I had been reading Page duBois's "Sappho is Burning" for my studies prior to starting my second go at After Sappho and I think they complement each other beautifully.
I find the idea of "speculative biography" fascinating and I thought Schwartz did a great job imagining the lives of these women. It was so fun to see how all these women I've studied were interrelated. The narration coming from a Greek chorus-esque group of sapphics was very well done. I felt myself part of a great (overlooked) history. I'm writing my dissertation about reproduction and writing and this book feels very related to that--a rethinking of the family and lineage without biological relation. Sappho as matriarch, Sappho as potentiality...this book has really got me thinking.
I found it an especially beautiful reframing of fragmentation. Recasting the missing lines not as lack or as something missing but as potential for future descendants--gorgeous. I had been reading Page duBois's "Sappho is Burning" for my studies prior to starting my second go at After Sappho and I think they complement each other beautifully.