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A review by sharonleavy
Mouthpieces by Eimear McBride
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
3.5
I find books like this incredibly hard to rate, because I can never decide if they're really pretentious or really genius. With this author I tend to lean towards the latter, just because of the way her writing pulls me in.
For those unfamiliar with Eimear McBride, she writes in a very unique way - her stories are like streams of consciousness on the page rather than a traditionally formed novel. This is a hindrance and a help - it's a hindrance if you're a fast reader because you can't tear through them. You need to focus and slow down and concentrate on the words, the feelings, the sounds, the tastes, the smells - it becomes a fully immersive reading experience which is not always a happy one when the subject matter is so heavy.
Mouthpieces is a collection of three very short one-woman plays. In the first one - I was almost going to write "we are a woman caring for a drunk, abusive partner" and it really does feel like we're in there experiencing it rather than reading from the outside. Does that make sense? I don't know how she does it.
The second is the interview of a woman who has witnessed a man being stabbed. This is so layered, I had to read it a few times to really understand that it was more than just an interview - it was a look at a Patriarchal society and an examination of the woman's feelings about revenge & justification (well, for me, that's what it was, I'm not sure if that's how the author intended it).
The third one was the most difficult one for me to get through and I honestly didn't read it more than once because I know that if I got too deep in there, it would have been really upsetting. A woman, "the eye", is imprisoned and there's a slideshow playing that features dozens of stereotypes and experiences that women go through. They're just single words on lines - but each one was like a punch and it made me really anxious, like I was being repeatedly slapped.
I can't say it was an enjoyable reading experience by any stretch of the imagination - but as with her other works, it was an unforgettable one.
For those unfamiliar with Eimear McBride, she writes in a very unique way - her stories are like streams of consciousness on the page rather than a traditionally formed novel. This is a hindrance and a help - it's a hindrance if you're a fast reader because you can't tear through them. You need to focus and slow down and concentrate on the words, the feelings, the sounds, the tastes, the smells - it becomes a fully immersive reading experience which is not always a happy one when the subject matter is so heavy.
Mouthpieces is a collection of three very short one-woman plays. In the first one - I was almost going to write "we are a woman caring for a drunk, abusive partner" and it really does feel like we're in there experiencing it rather than reading from the outside. Does that make sense? I don't know how she does it.
The second is the interview of a woman who has witnessed a man being stabbed. This is so layered, I had to read it a few times to really understand that it was more than just an interview - it was a look at a Patriarchal society and an examination of the woman's feelings about revenge & justification (well, for me, that's what it was, I'm not sure if that's how the author intended it).
The third one was the most difficult one for me to get through and I honestly didn't read it more than once because I know that if I got too deep in there, it would have been really upsetting. A woman, "the eye", is imprisoned and there's a slideshow playing that features dozens of stereotypes and experiences that women go through. They're just single words on lines - but each one was like a punch and it made me really anxious, like I was being repeatedly slapped.
I can't say it was an enjoyable reading experience by any stretch of the imagination - but as with her other works, it was an unforgettable one.