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A review by casskrug
My Good Bright Wolf by Sarah Moss
4.0
this was a spur of the moment netgalley request (thanks to roman clodia’s goodreads review) that i ended up being pleasantly surprised by! i haven’t read any other sarah moss books so i wasn’t sure what to expect. this is an unconventional memoir that plays with from, recounting moss’s struggle with anorexia and her fraught relationship with her parents, among other things.
moss acts as a bit of a time traveler here, examining the forces that shaped her parents and how that influenced their interactions with her. her parents’ own upbringings and society at the time caused them to repeat the neglect and uncaring behaviors that they themselves had faced. moss wonders if their rocky relationship is due to her not being the right child for them, which is a heartbreaking question to explore.
“You need a reverse ghost here, a present voice to haunt the past.”
another interesting question that brings the titular wolf to life - what would you say to your former-child self to protect them from future harm? moss arms the metaphorical wolf, inspired by a poem a friend shared with her, with advice for her younger self, wisdom that was hard won after the restriction of her childhood. she asks the wolf to go back to that young girl and reassure her that the struggles she faced with anorexia were not her fault, resulting in some really touching passages.
we also have the reoccurring concept of the unreliable narrator. an italicized voice questions moss’s memory and accuses her of making things up about her parents- what is the line between fact and fiction when you’re trying to recall traumatic events that happened to you 40 years ago? it was a really thought provoking way to explore the uncertainty moss feels as a novelist trying to write a memoir, due to her penchant for creating stories. i think it also allows her to accept that multiple things can be true at once, that there can be good experiences from her childhood, hidden amongst the bad ones.
examining little house on the prairie, little women, and jane eyre, among others, she utilizes literary criticism as a way to discuss privilege. throughout literary history, she shows how feminism has been used as a cover for racism, classism, and fatphobia. she also explores how her ability to choose sustainable consumption and to choose what kind of femininity she presents is a result of the privilege she has. i thought there was a lot of nuance in these sections of the book.
i think this was a really effective experimentation within the memoir genre. all of the elements she was working with really came together for me and kept me compelled. it’s a difficult read at times as she discusses her eating disorder and the hospitalization that was resulted from it in depth, so be mindful of that if you pick this one up. overall, though, it was unlike any other book i’ve read!
moss acts as a bit of a time traveler here, examining the forces that shaped her parents and how that influenced their interactions with her. her parents’ own upbringings and society at the time caused them to repeat the neglect and uncaring behaviors that they themselves had faced. moss wonders if their rocky relationship is due to her not being the right child for them, which is a heartbreaking question to explore.
“You need a reverse ghost here, a present voice to haunt the past.”
another interesting question that brings the titular wolf to life - what would you say to your former-child self to protect them from future harm? moss arms the metaphorical wolf, inspired by a poem a friend shared with her, with advice for her younger self, wisdom that was hard won after the restriction of her childhood. she asks the wolf to go back to that young girl and reassure her that the struggles she faced with anorexia were not her fault, resulting in some really touching passages.
we also have the reoccurring concept of the unreliable narrator. an italicized voice questions moss’s memory and accuses her of making things up about her parents- what is the line between fact and fiction when you’re trying to recall traumatic events that happened to you 40 years ago? it was a really thought provoking way to explore the uncertainty moss feels as a novelist trying to write a memoir, due to her penchant for creating stories. i think it also allows her to accept that multiple things can be true at once, that there can be good experiences from her childhood, hidden amongst the bad ones.
examining little house on the prairie, little women, and jane eyre, among others, she utilizes literary criticism as a way to discuss privilege. throughout literary history, she shows how feminism has been used as a cover for racism, classism, and fatphobia. she also explores how her ability to choose sustainable consumption and to choose what kind of femininity she presents is a result of the privilege she has. i thought there was a lot of nuance in these sections of the book.
i think this was a really effective experimentation within the memoir genre. all of the elements she was working with really came together for me and kept me compelled. it’s a difficult read at times as she discusses her eating disorder and the hospitalization that was resulted from it in depth, so be mindful of that if you pick this one up. overall, though, it was unlike any other book i’ve read!