forty-fourth (2022-08-31)
"the look on your face, my favorite look. it looked like the smallest decision, like a boat slightly turning but now absolutely going in that direction. i was fixed" - eileen myles in chelsea girls
photos by steph byce | i spent the last week on vacation in vancouver / island and read quite a few books.
shorts (click here for my full list of shorts on the docket for 2022)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892)
it’s the feminist in me but i can’t help but read this as a narrative of victory. i hadn’t read this since high school in which my class found the narrator deranged and unreliable, but i always found the final scene of the woman stepping (“creeping”) over her prone husband as she rips off the remaining wallpaper a scene of triumph and resistance. she has escaped imprisonment and alienation by becoming fully mad.
books
parable of the sower by octavia butler, 1993
i want to wait to discuss these until i read the whole series. until then i’ll say that i loved it and want to join the earthseed religion. butler writes dystopian fiction that feels just beyond current reality, so terrifyingly close you can feel it on the horizon.
jackson’s dilemma by iris murdoch, 1995
this was murdoch’s last novel before she died from alzheimer’s and the writing reflects it; there’s an undercurrent of churning, wandering, searching, and the language was simpler than her previous work (researchers actually studied this book to identify changes in writing due to the disease). i still loved it. there’s the classic murdoch cast of british wacky characters and people constantly ringing the doorbell, hiding from each other, bringing news of deceit and demise.
two girls, fat and thin by mary gaitskill, 1991
i messed up by reading veronica before gaitskill’s other novels because it was so perfect. this was, as my dad would say, good, not great. gaitskill does know how to write women in seedy situations in new york which feels flashy and dangerous and i’ve read enough to pick up her tics (everyone has hazel eyes and carries around white bags of candy). despite not adoring this, i’m still drawn to the way her female characters are willing participants in their self-destructive, somewhat freudian death drives.
the fourth child by jessica winter, 2021
i don’t mean for this to be a dis, but this is a book my mom (and maybe yours) would love. it’s a twofer coming-of-age story of a woman who becomes a young mother and we grow up with her daughter as she comes of age too. there’s an abortion and adoption storyline that, in a post-roe world, i found trite and unengaging. the most compelling moments were the main character’s tenacity and resourcefulness in the face of cruelty from her parents and husband.
lavinia by urusla k. le guin, 2008
this story recounts the character of lavinia from the epic latin poem Aeneid. it’s similar to daughters of sparta (which i discussed here) in that it’s a fictionalized account of a “minor” female character from a classic. the mystical sensibility was compelling and the writing breezy considering the dry content of men fighting wars with spears in togas over perceived slights. medieval stories are not my jam (so many slaves, so much time getting dressed) but the otherworldly-ness of this saved it for me.
oh william! by elizabeth strout, 2021
honestly, this was odd and i’m trying to let it marinate before rushing to judgment. certain passages (like the one above) felt stunning and poignant; other moments felt boring and hetero-centered in a way i couldn’t and didn’t want to relate to. but i’m curious enough about strout’s award-winning oeuvre that i’ll read more.
social creature by tara isabella burton, 2018
too good to be true by carola lovering, 2021
the maidens by alex michaelides, 2021
i’m going to talk about these three as one, because they’re all a similar genre of mystery/lies/thriller/romance that bakes into a perfect vacation read. they’re entertaining, somewhat cliche-ridden quick books, like a written real housewives episode. social creature is my favorite of the bunch because it was satisfyingly acerbic (and lavinia, a main character is so reminiscent of caroline calloway) and features one of my favorite book tropes, the competitive female friendship. too good to be true had some fun twists but the happy endings for everyone was disappointing. the maidens is opposite in that the ending was achingly tragic, something i always respect.
dinner at the belgard in vancouver
steph and i had a tasting menu at the belgard which was maybe the best restaurant meal i’ve had in my life. it was entirely gluten-free and every dish was beautifully constructed, featuring local seafood which i’d been dying to eat. i felt so indulged and taken care of - rare to feel as an annoying celiac in wheat-ridden restaurants - which was such an extraordinary gift.
thanks for reading - more to come -
bria
I was completely wrong footed by The Maidens and I now have much more respect for the author, after seeing the denouement coming in his break-up novel. I was so confident I know who it was again, it was a proper rug pull.
Have you read Pat Barkers' 'Women of Troy'?