Back in school, back to the textbook reviews (even though my lazy ass only wrote one… wah-wahhh). While I have plenty of books waiting for me on the reading list this semester, I want to highlight my favorite book from last spring’s “Realism & Its Discontents” class. That book is Her Body and Other Parties, a collection of short stories by Carmen Maria Machado.
Machado runs the gamut with this collection, firing off with a retelling of a horror story (“The Husband Stitch”), sprinkling the middle with Law & Order: SVU episodes (“Especially Heinous”), and ending with some dark–cue credits–realism (“Difficult at Parties”). And that’s not all; all the stories in between twist and manipulate several genres. However, these stories do come together with the overall theme of womanhood.
Like most collections, there are a few stories that I fall in love with and few that I find, well, meh. With this collection, the two that I fell in love with were actually the very first stories, “The Husband Stitch” and “Inventory.” Both explore the woman’s sexuality and her various desires that can never quite be satisfied. No matter how many times Protagonist #1 gives herself up to her husband, he still wants to dig up her secret. No matter how many partners Protagonist #2 has, she still wants even more partners. I do a terrible job of explaining these stories, but it is only because they hold a complexity that I fear I might spoil.
The story I found “meh” also turned out to be the least favorite in class: “Especially Heinous.” Needless to say, if you’ve never seen Law & Order: SVU, you have absolutely no idea what’s going on. Hell, one of my classmates chimed that they had seen the show and still didn’t get Machado’s story. The format (playfully summarizing each episode) is an interesting idea, but I would say that the actual content feels awkward smooshed between the other stories.
I’ve re-read Her Body a few times already, which should tell you something. And I’ve skipped “Especially Heinous” every time, which should tell you something else. Here, Machado showcases beautiful writing, relevant themes, and yeah, a couple TV show snippets that may be better off reading as a solo piece.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Sara Bechtol 