Ratings12
Average rating3.9
This was disturbing and heartbreaking to read.
Chris Kraus is so infuriating! Although, is there anyone in her life who doesn't love her and hate her at the same time? She's narcissistic/selfish and self-victimizing but she's too brainy and honest and I can't help but forgive her even though this is so stalkerish I want to hug Dick and apologise to him on her behalf.
Chris wondered why ‘female lived experience' has been read only as ‘feminist' in her book and I don't want to do that. This isn't just a wonderful book because it talks revealingly about female sexuality and creativity and the creativity bias against women. It is wonderful because I feel like no book can come closer to capturing how being in love really feels, which is ironic, because this is the opposite of a love story.
Chris opens herself up and show us how being in love has truly been for her - how those butterflies in stomach were more nausea than exhilaration, how unhealthy obsession has been love's split identity for her (like every relationship's a disorder), how it's always been one-sided - which is brave.
This isn't the book you're imagining it is and you might be disappointed. This is bitter, has an unreliable narrator and can read like one long rant; but C. S. Lewis once wrote “We do not write to be understood. We write in order to understand.” and I think that's so true for Chris Kraus. Remember that when you read this. This is fascinating because it is showing you the bare bones of writing.