It is enraging to be told that you are heartbroken because you are 19, not because he was the love of your life, and then suddenly you are talking to your best friend’s sister, telling her that the reason she is heartbroken is because she is 19.
What a surprise this short book was! This book is very artistic and high brow, without much punctuation and without naming the characters. It reads like a very very long poem instead of a short novel. The theme is about how women are treated as the side characters in their male partner’s lives. It gives example after example of how culture views the male point of view as the default- like “PacMan” and “Ms PacMan.” Imagine a world where the 80’s arcade games were “PacWoman” and “Mr PacWoman”
The girl writes a lot in her diary. She writes things like, I will be better at asking for reassurance. I will try to be more trusting and I will try to make sure that I don’t make my emotions his problem.
If I was trying to actually follow a plot I would be confused, instead I just read each beautifully constructed paragraph one at a time. The blurb talks about how this takes place over 7 days and is about a woman whose boyfriend has just proposed. This doesn’t have a defined beginning-middle-end but is a feminist manifesto and commentary on 21st century patriarchy.
People who are doing well do not listen to Norah Jones.
Also the cover is very shiny, so when I look at the book, I see a distorted reflect myself on the cover. Pretty brilliant.
Catherine Howard is the one I think about the most. She was 16 years old when she married Henry VIII. She was 18 when he killed her. She was a handmaiden to Anne of Cleeves, and her family had placed her at court because an older man was preying on her in her own household. When the man, her music teacher, started pawing at her, she was 12. She was beheaded not for adultery, but for treason; the charge was rooted in the sexual affairs she had before her marriage, including, allegedly, the one with her music teacher.
Thank you to Gallery marketing for gifting me this book. I loved it, 4.5 stars.
Isn’t it funny how we go back to draw the lines. To make “you were made for me” feel more true. What is You were made for me But a mistranslation of I own you.
Leave a Reply