In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.
A wife refuses her husband's entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store's prom dresses. One woman's surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella Especially Heinous, Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a …
In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.
A wife refuses her husband's entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store's prom dresses. One woman's surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella Especially Heinous, Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naively assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgangers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes.
Earthy and otherworldly, antic and sexy, queer and caustic, comic and deadly serious, Her Body and Other Parties swings from horrific violence to the most exquisite sentiment. In their explosive originality, these stories enlarge the possibilities of contemporary fiction.
I'm not a fan of short stories, but these were so well written that it was enough for me to finish the book. Most of the stories are very dark and scary. As far as I can remember all of them are magical realism from the pov of lesbian women, and mostly they revolve around sexism, sex, physical and mental illnesses. I skipped one of them though ("Especially Heinous" since I don't know the Law&Order series and figured the story would make not much sense to me).
I really liked "The Husband Stitch" (omg it made me angry enough to kill), "Inventory" and "The Resident".
So thrilling, smart, witty, tender, erotic while being uneasily and spooky. Such an enjoyable reading! My favourite chapter surely has to be the detective story.
Review of 'Her Body and Other Parties: Stories' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A MUST read. One of the most true stories I’ve ever read. Not true as in facts, but true as in story-truth, as in telling the world as it is. What is it to live under patriarchy as a person treated as a woman? What is it to have the world continually tell you your experience is inaccurate? I can’t tell you too much about this retelling of a classic horror story, but that it’s deeply moving, and powerful, and haunting. It will stay with me for a very long time.
Merged review:
I loved this book so much. I read the entire thing in almost one sitting. I will probably reread it again and again. It's a beautiful, powerful, deeply embodied book that speaks to my experience living in this world as a queer person in a body, treated as our society treats women. It's also loads of fun.
