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A review by bushraboblai
Ghostwriter by Rayco Pulido
5.0
I’ve been thinking about the popularized concept of “female rage” for a while now. How it’s only acceptable for skinny (and mostly white) women to be pretty depictions of it with their mascara flowing down. There needs to be an aspect of helplessness. The female rage character will be rescued - by fate, by an act of God, by her JOB. I’ve also been thinking about that tumblr post going viral that says “men pay women to look and act like that to convince you to do it for free” and in congruence with that, the tweet where a self-professed leftist man is gleeful at the idea that a young women has to sexually exploit herself to her landlord to keep her housing. There is this constant disdain and mockery for women’s concerns and rages. Because it’s not seen as a tangible experience.
When are women allowed to get angry? When are women allowed to react to the things happening around them? These are some of the questions explored in Rayco Pulido’s (translated by Andrea Rosenberg) Ghostwriter. The story is set in Francoist Spain and our protagonist works for the propaganda department headed by the Church.
An image that particularly struck me was of the battered woman deriding Laia for being concerned because at least she isn’t husband-less. The questioning of the concept of motherhood within the structure of marriage and how violence is necessary to escape that cage of heteropatriarchal nuclear family is contrasted with the disdain for any other lifestyle.
The female rage in this book takes the form of a serial killer. The violence of the serial killings is set against the background of Francoist state killings and the Red Scare. Yet, it is the serial killings that is given the most attention and shock. There is general sense of placation towards everything else.
The column that Laia is required to write is inundated with wives and girlfriends facing domestic abuse and threats of violence and she is not allowed to give advise that stray from the dictates set by the church that encourage submission and cooperation on the part of the women - even if she pays for it with her own life.
The Francoist society places a lot of value on family rearing but doesn’t seem to put any consequences on men who abandon their families or introduce violence into them. In typical patriarchal fashion, it is the woman who faces the blame and the consequences of not having a husband.
In the end book leaves you very angry and very confused about the institution of marriage itself.
When are women allowed to get angry? When are women allowed to react to the things happening around them? These are some of the questions explored in Rayco Pulido’s (translated by Andrea Rosenberg) Ghostwriter. The story is set in Francoist Spain and our protagonist works for the propaganda department headed by the Church.
An image that particularly struck me was of the battered woman deriding Laia for being concerned because at least she isn’t husband-less. The questioning of the concept of motherhood within the structure of marriage and how violence is necessary to escape that cage of heteropatriarchal nuclear family is contrasted with the disdain for any other lifestyle.
The female rage in this book takes the form of a serial killer. The violence of the serial killings is set against the background of Francoist state killings and the Red Scare. Yet, it is the serial killings that is given the most attention and shock. There is general sense of placation towards everything else.
The column that Laia is required to write is inundated with wives and girlfriends facing domestic abuse and threats of violence and she is not allowed to give advise that stray from the dictates set by the church that encourage submission and cooperation on the part of the women - even if she pays for it with her own life.
The Francoist society places a lot of value on family rearing but doesn’t seem to put any consequences on men who abandon their families or introduce violence into them. In typical patriarchal fashion, it is the woman who faces the blame and the consequences of not having a husband.
In the end book leaves you very angry and very confused about the institution of marriage itself.