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A review by magtferg
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
4.0
Great character delineation.
Where the first novel in the series pulled from the Classics, this novel used the Jacobean Revenge Tragedy—blood and guts for revenge, justice served at the end, women kept in their place. I missed the influence of the Classics, not a huge fan of the revenge tragedy, I wonder if the next novel will move forward in Literary time—maybe pull its influence from 17th or 18th century literature. If so, why did she skip the literature of the Middle Ages?
Hated Michael F. so much that I really wanted him to be the murderer.
If this novelist was known only as Robert Galbraith, I’d have fewer qualms about writing this: I found the treatment of the murderer sexist. The idea first entered my head with the treatment of Nina L. Treated as small, needy, demanding and rapacious for her overwhelming desire of Strike. It made me queasy and uneasy to see the text handle a woman in a way that seemed to belittle her as overly and unreasonably desirous for human connection and relation.
When the murderer was revealed—a woman whose anger was framed as her inability to realize a physical relationship with men—I was further disturbed. It would be one thing if I felt the murderess was driven to murder because of societal constraints forced her to feel inadequate—but I didn’t feel the narrative did that work. Instead, it was as if her inability to have a relationship with a man rendered her worthless, vengeful, a non-contributing member of society. It was against stereotype to have an older woman commit a violent murder, but a woman whose professional business success masks personal anger and bitterness does not.
Where the first novel in the series pulled from the Classics, this novel used the Jacobean Revenge Tragedy—blood and guts for revenge, justice served at the end, women kept in their place. I missed the influence of the Classics, not a huge fan of the revenge tragedy, I wonder if the next novel will move forward in Literary time—maybe pull its influence from 17th or 18th century literature. If so, why did she skip the literature of the Middle Ages?
Hated Michael F. so much that I really wanted him to be the murderer.
If this novelist was known only as Robert Galbraith, I’d have fewer qualms about writing this: I found the treatment of the murderer sexist. The idea first entered my head with the treatment of Nina L. Treated as small, needy, demanding and rapacious for her overwhelming desire of Strike. It made me queasy and uneasy to see the text handle a woman in a way that seemed to belittle her as overly and unreasonably desirous for human connection and relation.
When the murderer was revealed—a woman whose anger was framed as her inability to realize a physical relationship with men—I was further disturbed. It would be one thing if I felt the murderess was driven to murder because of societal constraints forced her to feel inadequate—but I didn’t feel the narrative did that work. Instead, it was as if her inability to have a relationship with a man rendered her worthless, vengeful, a non-contributing member of society. It was against stereotype to have an older woman commit a violent murder, but a woman whose professional business success masks personal anger and bitterness does not.