Peculiar feminist 'dystopia'
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The Blurb:
Imagine a world very close to our own: where women are not safe in their bodies, where desperate measures are required to raise a daughter.
This is the story of Grace, Lia, and Sky kept apart from the world for their own good and taught the terrible things that every woman must learn about love. And it is the story of the men who come to find them - three strangers washed up by the sea, their gazes hungry and insistent, trailing desire and destruction in their wake....
The Review
Billed as feminist dystopian fiction, this was always going to peak my interest. Then when it was recently revealed to have earned place on the Man Booker 2018 longlist, I knew I had to check it out.
The story entirely revolves around the experiences of 3 sisters, confined in their existence in a remote house, on a remote island, with only their parents for company. We soon realise that everything is not right with this family; with both parents subjecting the daughters to various 'cures' (definitely amounting to child abuse).
These cures are supposed to cleanse them, to keep them safe from the toxins of the mainland, to help them to protect their bodies. The sisters accept this treatment with no question, even willingly subjecting themselves to it. It is clear this has been the norm for as long as they remember and that the parents themselves believe in the efficacy of these cures. We learn that for some time, damaged women have been arriving to the house to receive similar cures, to help them to recover (although we never really fully understand from what.)
There is no getting away from the fact that I like books to tell me the whole story and this one most certainly doesn't. I found it so incredibly vague. What had happened on the mainland? Why were women's bodies so vulnerable to injury and suffering? What was it about the presence of men that was so damaging to them? Were they part of a cult? Was anything in fact wrong with the women at all?
I understand that this lack of information was a conscious choice by the author in order for you to come to some of your own conclusions, but that doesn't mean that I enjoyed it. There's a strong undercurrent of feminist metaphors that could be used in comparison to our current experience of women's' place in society, but I suspect I probably wasn't smart enough to entirely get all of these...
I also struggled with the narrative voice of the sisters. They tell the story so dispassionately, that it is hard to identify with them at all. It's true that this could be a result of the circumstances they have gown up in, not really knowing familial love in the way it should be experienced. But they were so cold and unfeeling at times, always abstracting their emotions. It would be a stretch to say any of them are likeable characters.
There is no denying that this book is beautifully written. It is atmospheric, haunting and almost poetic in parts. The narrative has a dreamy quality to it. Whilst I think that this is a really stylish piece of writing, it isn't something that resonated with me and ultimately I didn't get much enjoyment or satisfaction from reading it. I did find it frequently being a case of style over substance - in the end I needed more context and back story to make this work for me.
(NB - It is also worth noting that if descriptions of being held under water to the point of near drowning might act as a trigger for you, then this is a book to severely avoid.)
Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for this preview copy in return for an honest review.