kingofspain93 's review for:

Elmet by Fiona Mozley

4.5

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Mozley is the rare author who seems to genuinely believe that poor people have souls. Elmet has a consideration for the philosophy possible in any life that is almost Dostoyevskian. This book is beautifully written, it clearly loves women without reducing or flattening them, and Mozley’s world and characters are fully realized. The relationship between family and community security, the tensions of that, is a theme that I think has rarely been handled better in other contemporary novels. Sexuality, gender, education, labor, violence, nature-culture, land, and basically any other site of conflict you could identify in life is harmoniously included here. There are some structural things that I didn’t like here, but those complaints are minor. If Mozley writes another novel, I will read it.

Originally I was uncomplicatedly excited to see male characters that I could respect. That said, as much smarter people have pointed out to me, there is actually a potential danger when women write male characters who have intelligence, sensitivity, and integrity. On the one hand, these characters demonstrate a path towards a full realization of masculinity of which toxicity is only the shadow. On the other, the empathy and kindness with which women are able to portray men can make men seem, generally, more self-controlled and less dangerous than they are. The capacity for men to not be evil exists but the realization of it is uncommon. For anyone who wants to reflect on how women write men, and maybe some of the psychosocial impacts of this, I recommend using this novel as one significant data point.