A review by hanejhn
The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter

4.0

I have no idea how to collect my thoughts on this or what to rate it. Feeling a three and a half right now I think? I somehow both feel like I have so much to say and am also speechless? What I will say: this book is very much second wave but it is also second wave satirical. I would argue that gender identity and transition is used in a much broader sense to talk about more base concepts like our roles and obligations under the patriarchy or the male gaze. As much as I initially fear that the wrong person could take this book and either: twist it to an anti-trans agenda or view the text as transphobic, I also feel like this book is so absurd and allegorical that you would have a hard time taking its entirety as fact or statement of the author’s opinion. I would say though, that gender identity seems very much a state of mentality more than anything else- we have quotes very purposefully echoing Beauvoir (especially her “one is not born a woman but rather becomes one”) who then of course went on to inspire the more societally common Butler-esque perception of gender which only really rooted itself into western culture into niche queer spaces in the 90s, and is only beginning to be accepted in a broader sense today. I would have loved to have read this book in my degree but also completely understand why it would be so difficult to teach. Any moments where our protagonist’s hormones disrupt their mentality seem to have a very intentional point to make. This book could not be written today as we are much more aware of trans-ness than the feminist movement was in the seventies. Note how Rocky Horror’s use of the word “transvestite” is now outdated but not in that context- it was an all consuming term that meant a spectrum of things as there was no such broadness of gender identification language. The representation it was offering was more than had existed; trans-ness in film before happening only in shadows. A Rocky Horror in the 2020s would have much different points to make and wouldn’t use the same devices, just in the same way as Angela Carter probably wouldn’t use gender in this way. I’m glad I read this but it takes both a real critical eye to do and a suspension of intelligence at points for the crazy, wild and downright disgusting. Not sure exactly who I would go about recommending this to. Definitely has piqued my interest and I will be reading even more Carter and any critical material about this I can get my hands on.