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A review by teekeita
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
4.25
This is an inventive style of memoir. The choose your own ending part !!
Again it reminds me of Christina Sharpe/McKittrick's use of (end)notes and writing in snapshots/short succinct bites. I loved the recurring 'styles' of what i'm going to call 'Dream House' diary entries where the style and form feels the same; we know what to expect as reader (e.g. the chapter 'Dream House as Déjà Vu'). Machado has a way of writing memoir that reads like poetry; some of this book is poetry. A difficult read of lesbian domestic abuse...some (re)accounts shook me to my core. A happy shock though wasMachado ending up with the third woman, Val, at the end of the story . I wish there was a bit more engagement with the I in the book - that is who is Carmen and what is her positionality, particularly when the form switches from memoir to nonfiction essay. The chapters on queer domestic abuse especially. White latinas have a way invoking critical race analysis and not positioning themselves within their analysis. Overall a superb book that pushes the boundary of what is memoir. Exsquisite chapters: 'Dream House as Spy Thriller', 'Dream House as 9 Thornton Square', 'Dream House as Ambiguity', 'Dream House as Double Cross'. I cannot get the line "a kick of anxiety in your lungs" out of my head.
Again it reminds me of Christina Sharpe/McKittrick's use of (end)notes and writing in snapshots/short succinct bites. I loved the recurring 'styles' of what i'm going to call 'Dream House' diary entries where the style and form feels the same; we know what to expect as reader (e.g. the chapter 'Dream House as Déjà Vu'). Machado has a way of writing memoir that reads like poetry; some of this book is poetry. A difficult read of lesbian domestic abuse...some (re)accounts shook me to my core. A happy shock though was
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Physical abuse