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A review by casskrug
My Death by Lisa Tuttle
5.0
this book left me so speechless i read it twice in one week, which i think is some of the highest praise i could give a book. i enjoyed it just as much the second time around, too! i thought lisa tuttle’s writing style hit a sweet spot in between nice lit fic descriptions and this feeling of uncanny dread. i also loved the way she intertwined real literary figures with the lives of her fictional writers that are at the center of the story - she genuinely had me thinking this was a nonfiction book at certain points. honestly i’m disappointed that i can’t read the fictional book “in troy” by helen ralston, the writer who is the subject of this book. sounds like it would be right up my alley. if you enjoy books about art and writing with a weird twist, this is the book for you!
i recommend going into this one blind but i want to talk about certain things that really struck me within the novel so (maybe) spoilers ahead, depending on what you consider a spoiler (mostly me just rambling about things that might not make sense if you haven’t read the book yet). proceed with caution!
tuttle explores the way female artists/writers are overshadowed by the men they’re associated with, or by certain dramatic events that take place in their lives, to the point that their work is kept in obscurity. and if you’ve ever enjoyed the work of someone who is in this category, you might know what it’s like to connect so deeply with a piece of art or writing that you feel like it was created specifically for you - like you could’ve created it yourself. tuttle then flips that feeling on its head with her metaphysical sorcery that left me staring at page 100, mouth agape, for a solid 10 minutes, both times i read the book.
one of the reasons i chose to reread the book immediately after finishing it is because of all the serendipitous moments leading us to what happens on page 100:our narrator stumbling across the portrait of helen ralston in the gallery, the chance to get an exclusive look at helen’s painting “my death” immediately after deciding to write a biography about her, the other writer working on a book about helen graciously providing our narrator with helen’s contact information, helen having heard of the narrator and even loving her books… these wins for the narrator in her research process then morph into unsettling coincidences between lives of narrator and helen that are uncovered as the narrator interviews helen. the build up to the climax of the story was done so well and the narrator’s growing sense of confusion and dread as she learns more about helen’s life is palpable.
there’s also a thread running through the novel about sexuality in art that reminded me of certain parts of art monsters by lauren elkin.helen’s lover, willy, was literally blinded because of helen freely expressing her sexuality in the painting “my death” and we see the narrator also grappling with her feeling of disgust and shame upon initially seeing the painting. it just reminded me of a lot of the themes of art monsters, specifically carolee schneeman‘s point that women were usually the subjects of art, so women being makers of art was a challenge to the rules of the traditionally male-dominated art world. just really enjoyed that connection between my recent reads.
the fact that i have this much to say about a 105 page book really tells you all you need to know! crazy stuff for someone that usually can’t form a coherent thought about a book!
i recommend going into this one blind but i want to talk about certain things that really struck me within the novel so (maybe) spoilers ahead, depending on what you consider a spoiler (mostly me just rambling about things that might not make sense if you haven’t read the book yet). proceed with caution!
tuttle explores the way female artists/writers are overshadowed by the men they’re associated with, or by certain dramatic events that take place in their lives, to the point that their work is kept in obscurity. and if you’ve ever enjoyed the work of someone who is in this category, you might know what it’s like to connect so deeply with a piece of art or writing that you feel like it was created specifically for you - like you could’ve created it yourself. tuttle then flips that feeling on its head with her metaphysical sorcery that left me staring at page 100, mouth agape, for a solid 10 minutes, both times i read the book.
one of the reasons i chose to reread the book immediately after finishing it is because of all the serendipitous moments leading us to what happens on page 100:
there’s also a thread running through the novel about sexuality in art that reminded me of certain parts of art monsters by lauren elkin.
the fact that i have this much to say about a 105 page book really tells you all you need to know! crazy stuff for someone that usually can’t form a coherent thought about a book!