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A review by tomleetang
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
4.0
A brilliant, humanising narrative about poverty and the penal system. What is most incredible to me about this book is how the women it describes, who have committed quite nasty, violent crimes, can still be made to seem sympathetic. Kushner doesn't forgive their transgressions but places them within the context of their childhoods and their environments.
Of course central to it all is the titular Mars Room and what it represents: the commoditisation of female bodies, particularly the destitute.
I do agree with other people here who have said that in some ways the multiple character viewpoints don't fit together as neatly as one might like, but to be honest I wasn't as bothered by that as I was by the strongarming of the Iraq War into the narrative - it was too much soap box, too incongruous with the rest of the plot.
Nevertheless, I would wholeheartedly recommend this is an enlightening and gripping read.
Of course central to it all is the titular Mars Room and what it represents: the commoditisation of female bodies, particularly the destitute.
I do agree with other people here who have said that in some ways the multiple character viewpoints don't fit together as neatly as one might like, but to be honest I wasn't as bothered by that as I was by the strongarming of the Iraq War into the narrative - it was too much soap box, too incongruous with the rest of the plot.
Nevertheless, I would wholeheartedly recommend this is an enlightening and gripping read.