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samantha_duncan 's review for:
Bina: A Novel in Warnings
by Anakana Schofield
Bina is a 74-year-old woman who is not going to make her story palatable for you. She will take her time laying out her warnings (most of which revolve around "don't trust men") in a way that insists on taking up the space women are routinely told not to take. I'm always amazed by people who take their time telling a personal story - my method is typically to tell it as quickly and efficiently as possible, so as not to bore the listener who I'm convinced doesn't want to hear about my life in the first place. Bina is fed up with that shit, and the book's form reflects that, talking around the story instead of telling it straightforwardly.
Come to this novel with tolerance and patience for form as a character in the story, or don't come at all. But come to it, because all women need the kinds of warnings Bina has learned about the hard way. It seems like much of her life was spent extending herself to men, and her willingness to help them ruins her life. You see over and over the ways in which women allow men to latch onto them and how impossibly hard it can be for those women to then detangle themselves from the messes the men have made. For this, Bina has warnings, her generosity continuing to show.
The novel's odd structure left me feeling I didn't grasp every plot element there was, and it seems like a book that needs a second read. But it goes quick and would probably be a fun reread, if new things are revealed each time.
Come to this novel with tolerance and patience for form as a character in the story, or don't come at all. But come to it, because all women need the kinds of warnings Bina has learned about the hard way. It seems like much of her life was spent extending herself to men, and her willingness to help them ruins her life. You see over and over the ways in which women allow men to latch onto them and how impossibly hard it can be for those women to then detangle themselves from the messes the men have made. For this, Bina has warnings, her generosity continuing to show.
The novel's odd structure left me feeling I didn't grasp every plot element there was, and it seems like a book that needs a second read. But it goes quick and would probably be a fun reread, if new things are revealed each time.