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A review by libvin96
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
2.0
I really wanted to enjoy this book due to all of its critical acclaim and recommendations from friends, but most of it was just too over my head and difficult to appreciate, even after reading people's interpretations of the collection to gain better understanding. Machado's ability to cross genres and tap into unexplored places in her writing is genius. As far as trailblazing goes, this collection is a masterpiece. Her descriptions are impeccable. I personally just did not enjoy constantly grasping for straws to figure out what she is trying to communicate, desperately attempting to connect dots and to find some takeaway, in nearly every single piece.
My favorite pieces were The Husband Stitch and Inventory. The settings were creative, and I could appreciate the symbolism of the green ribbon and entitlement in The Husband Stitch and the backdrop, suspense, and exploration of sexuality in Inventory. My least favorite piece was without a doubt the insufferably long SVU spinoff. While much more inventive than your typical fanfiction, it still hardly seemed much more than that.
Jen Corrigan writes the following on Medium:
"Many of the stories are ambiguous by design, reflecting the liminal spaces and identities within which many women exist, and the reader is left trying to piece together clues to form a conclusion. Even the title has ambiguous meanings, as it is not named for a story in the collection. While sometimes this open-ended form of storytelling can come off as hackneyed in the hands of an amateur, Machado is anything but."
I think Corrigan nails my problem with this book; I'm too much of an amateur, passive, leisure reader to delve deep and to figure out what Machado was trying to do. Her purpose is to be ambiguous with these stories and to leave us grasping to piece them together. While this does speak for Machado's brilliance, it still doesn't make for an enjoyable reading experience for all fans of feminist literature, necessarily. We're not all English majors and literature experts.
My favorite pieces were The Husband Stitch and Inventory. The settings were creative, and I could appreciate the symbolism of the green ribbon and entitlement in The Husband Stitch and the backdrop, suspense, and exploration of sexuality in Inventory. My least favorite piece was without a doubt the insufferably long SVU spinoff. While much more inventive than your typical fanfiction, it still hardly seemed much more than that.
Jen Corrigan writes the following on Medium:
"Many of the stories are ambiguous by design, reflecting the liminal spaces and identities within which many women exist, and the reader is left trying to piece together clues to form a conclusion. Even the title has ambiguous meanings, as it is not named for a story in the collection. While sometimes this open-ended form of storytelling can come off as hackneyed in the hands of an amateur, Machado is anything but."
I think Corrigan nails my problem with this book; I'm too much of an amateur, passive, leisure reader to delve deep and to figure out what Machado was trying to do. Her purpose is to be ambiguous with these stories and to leave us grasping to piece them together. While this does speak for Machado's brilliance, it still doesn't make for an enjoyable reading experience for all fans of feminist literature, necessarily. We're not all English majors and literature experts.