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A review by roseandisabella
Revenge of the Scapegoat by Caren Beilin
5.0
Writing the trauma plot can be scary for two reasons: 1) Your audience will want to gobble up every last wound you have for their own. 2) They will judge your wounds not even worthy of a poke. This book (so long-awaited and adored!), gets at this. What do we owe the reader? Do they deserve to read the letters? I was honestly pretty surprised the letters were shared! I half expected a cruel and delightful refusal. But in opening up that window to the reader, Beilin invites scorn, especially through the lens of critics who want a trauma plot dripping in blood rather than Nazi Cow Milk.
"Oh, it was a little bit, you know, I got bored."
"I was worried that sharing it invites people to think, 'What's the problem?' And of course it wasn't that bad in some sort of comparative scheme or, I don't know, there's a lot of really bad traumas in families, but this was mine and it killed me. I guess I'm a little sensitive about how boring it turned out to be, it's just some dad ragging on a teenager or something."
From one Scapegoat to another, I loved it! The printing itself is gorgeous too, props to all at Dorothy.
"Oh, it was a little bit, you know, I got bored."
"I was worried that sharing it invites people to think, 'What's the problem?' And of course it wasn't that bad in some sort of comparative scheme or, I don't know, there's a lot of really bad traumas in families, but this was mine and it killed me. I guess I'm a little sensitive about how boring it turned out to be, it's just some dad ragging on a teenager or something."
From one Scapegoat to another, I loved it! The printing itself is gorgeous too, props to all at Dorothy.