Her Body And Other Parties

This anthology is very tricky to pin down, which in many ways is probably intentional. It is horrifying and funny and deeply strange. Carmen Maria Machado's protagonists exist in ways that allow them to be barely attached to reality, and yet they still manage to fall in love, to feel fear, to fuck with exceptional gusto. Reading this is a bit like stepping through a veil, and occasionally getting confused and tangled up in the drapes.

The stories I loved, like really loved, are probably in the minority. Those are definitely “The Husband Stitch,” a re-telling of the urban myth of the girl who won't take off the ribbon around her neck, and “Real Women Have Bodies,” a story of a woman working in a dress shop as the world endures of a plague in which young women are literally fading away. I thought about “The Husband Stitch” for days afterward. I never thought of the story of the girl with the green ribbon as a morality tale about consent, but it absolutely is. They should tell that story in sex ed class. “If your girlfriend tells you no, think of that ‘no' as a green ribbon around her neck,” is what I would say if I was a my 9th grade sex ed teacher. Would that be too much? Would I traumatize kids with that? Of course, I definitely would not recommend this story, as Machado tells it, to teach, because wowzers is it a sexy story. It's a little bit weird to reduce what in any other circumstances is a healthy, happy couple with a good relationship down to their sex life. Machado would let you believe that the only thing these two did for eighteen years was fuck. But more than that is the betrayal at the core of the story - that regardless of how much you love and respect a man, he can still do you irreparable harm by not respecting your boundaries. The fact that this is something that good men are perfectly capable of is an important point to put at the front of this anthology.

“Real Women Have Bodies” is one of the stories in this collection that reflect Machado's interest in unusual apocalypses, and I appreciate when an author discusses the end of the world in such matter of fact ways. It's hard to say what conclusions Machado wants us to draw from this story, but perhaps its simply more about what it is like to not exist anymore, and whether as woman that's good thing or a bad thing. “The Inventory” is similar, though a little more literal, as it is about a woman recounting her series of lovers while an unnamed plague sweeps across the nation, killing her friends and family, decimating civilization, and forcing her deeper into hiding. Like with “The Husband Stitch,” “The Inventory” makes me feel like I've been unbearably prudish with my life, while also showing how someone can feel so alone while being intimate with others, and how they can feel loved and a part of whole when isolated from the rest of the world.

Stories like “Mothers,” “Eight Bites” and “Difficult At Parties” sat in a middle ground for me. Though I am quite intrigued by the device of “Difficult At Parties” where a woman develops the ability to hear the thoughts of performers in porn films after enduring a sexual assault, what Machado did with that concept I found more frustrating than anything else. “Mothers” is a fascinating, evocative story about a woman who somehow conceives a child with her abusive ex-girlfriend, that gets increasingly more abstract and by its end I couldn't tell what was up or down. “Eight Bites” is more straight forward, a magical realism perspective on a woman getting bariatric surgery. While I liked this story, as a woman who has been thin all her life, there's probably quite a bit that went over my head.

Then there were stories that I just didn't know what to make of. “Especially Heinous,” a kind of bizarro fever dream fan fiction of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, was clever and funny and strange at first. And then it kept going and I felt like I was being sucked down a strange USA marathon K-hole. “The Resident” likewise I struggled to get into, though it does possess what is quite possibly my favorite paragraph that I have read this year:

“It is my right to reside in my own mind. It is my right,” I said. “It is my right to be unsociable and it is my right to be unpleasant to be around. Do you ever listen to yourself? This is crazy, that is crazy, everything is crazy to you. By whose measure? Well, it is my right to be crazy, as you love to say so much. I have no shame. I have felt many things in my life, but shame is not among them...You may think that I have an obligation to you but I assure you that us being thrown together in this arbitrary arrangement does not cohesion make. I have never had less of an obligation to anyone in my life, you aggressively ordinary woman.”

This is another book off my Wronged Women list - women who have been part of the #metoo movement. Specifically the ones that have come out against Junot Diaz and Sherman Alexie, but I hope to expand it to others as well. Her Body and Other Parties is a collection of eight surreal stories. Magical Realism is probably the best categorization for them, as they're not really fantasy. Real World stories with a touch of magic, or events that we're not sure whether they could be magic or are just in the narrator's head.

The Husband Stitch is the first story, and it's a retelling of an old children's story that I recently saw being discussed on Twitter - the one with the woman who had a green ribbon tied around her neck. Her husband always wanted to ask about it, but she refused to answer any questions about it, and wouldn't let him touch it until she was on her deathbed. In Machado's version, it isn't just the narrator that has one. Every woman does. It's different colors, in different places, but it's still never talked about. I think she means it as a metaphor for trauma. It works well.

Eight Bites is a particularly haunting piece about self-hate, body acceptance, and peer pressure. It's probably my second favorite story after The Husband Stitch.

The only one I didn't love was Especially Heinous. It was written as episode synopses of a television show, and it was interesting, but it just went on too long.

All of the stories are written well, though, and each one makes a different point. I think this would make an amazing Book Club book, because I'd love to discuss the meanings of the stories with other people. Other women, specifically. It would definitely be a great book for discussion.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

This short story collection will take you on a wild ride. These stories are a mix of horror, magical realism, and fantasy and if you aren't a fan of those elements, you may not enjoy this collection. These stories are beautifully written and Machado creates gorgeous tapestries from her writing and characters. I think this is a collection I'll revisit in the future.
Notable stories: “Real Women Have Bodies,” “The Resident,” “Difficult at Parties” 

I struggle with short story collections and this one was no different. There were a few stories that resonated with me, including The Husband Stitch, Eight Bites, and Difficult at Parties. However, most of the stories left me feeling confused and convinced that I missed something important, particularly the story Especially Heinous - a 50-page long short story that is a series of Law and Order: SVU episode synopses. I think this book is probably really good but just not for me.

Reminiscent of [b:Friday Black 37570595 Friday Black Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1519263290l/37570595.SY75.jpg 59181816], and I realize it's unfair of me to say that because Her Body is the earlier work. What I mean is the gimmick: the stories all take place in a reality eversoslightly off-center from ours, recognizable yet alarming. It's an ingenious and effective device: Machado's matter-of-fact depiction of daily misogyny, and that world's casual acceptance thereof, shines a spotlight on the injustices that our world turns a blind eye to.The stories are hit or miss, but in reading my friends' reviews I was delighted to find differences of opinion in which was which. Delighted, because it means thoughtful conversations lie ahead from which I may learn.

A great story collection, both in the quality of the stories and how well they hung together while still touching several genres. Sometimes the speculative elements felt a bit too on the nose for me (mostly in “Real Women Have Bodies” and “Eight Bites”) but the emotional truth of the stories was always very strong.

In this collection of short stories, Carmen Maria Machado takes things that many people are familiar with—love, anxiety, sex, death, marriage, Law & Order: SVU—and adds a backdrop of horror. Like an adult version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, this book is made up of several stories that aren't explicitly terrifying but still have the ability to creep you out. For the most part, each story begins with a pretty mild premise and devolves into surreal body horror.

A lot of reviews on here mention Especially Heinous as being the worst story, but I think it'll be one of those love/hate type things in the long run. I honestly loved it. For me, the first couple entries had me wondering what I was getting myself into. I even thought about skipping the story about halfway through season 1 until the girls with bells for eyes showed up. From then on, the story became one of the most surreal things I've ever read. I don't want to give too much away, but I really loved the way everything played out.

Overall, I really enjoyed Machado's writing style and I'm looking forward to reading more. My only complaints are that she relied on cliches quite a bit and the stories were a little formulaic in that they almost all ended with questioning if anything actually happened. However, this had some of the most unique writing and voice I've experienced in years. Can't wait to read some full-length novels.