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Loading... The Book of X (2019)by Sarah Rose Etter
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. As one reviewer said, "I loved it even though I felt a little sick." The dad's meat quarry will drive you straight to a vegan diet. Another commenter said compelling and unbearable. I couldn't stop reading, but I wanted to stop, not to think about the sad, hurting protagonist any longer. The writing is remarkable, the structure is unique with reference citations and visions interspersed with her story. As a metaphor for contemporary womanhood, it's spot on, but is there no shred of kindness? Not for Cassie. ( ) Ah, another weird and wonderful indie press book that is just my sort of thing. Cassie is born with a genetic condition that the women in her family have: their stomachs tied in a knot. The boys are fine, of course. It's interesting that a story like this has not been written before, with the unique yet almost obvious choice to make a character born a knot. I don't like that the description of the book mostly focuses on "rape", as the book has so much more to it than that. The book is mostly about body acceptance or body uncomfortableness. How it is to live in a female body. Also, a lot of body horror here in all sorts of ways, including a meat quarry and a Man Store. The book is very surreal with a lot of haunting imagery. It's Weird. It's Wonderful. I would set this on the shelf beside 'The Visitors' by Jessi Jezewska Stevens. The Book of X was my first time reading Sarah Rose Etter and what a thoroughly beautiful, darkly funny, joyus, heartbreaking, and absolutely weird novel! Two words: Meat quarry! A deeply affecting novel of womanhood and otherness and emotional trauma by way of simply being a person in the world. But the world that Sarah Rose Etter has built here is altogether alien and familiar. To attribute a quote from Paul Beatty about his 2015 satirical novel The Sellout; when asked about the novel he said something like 'its all true'. The Book of X for all its weirdness and absurdity and to this reader satire The Book of X could very well be a true story. Magical. Transcendent. Heartbreaking. Full of weird and bonkers elements that work within its own strange and beautiful internal logic. The Book of X is everything a novel should be. Everything a story should be. Really gorgeous prose, intense magical realism vibes and a lot to chew on (probably a really good book club book, though I didn't find the book club guide at the back to be very good but I never do lol.) How this is NOT trans is mind-boggling to me, but I guess it just speaks to the expansive destructive power of patriarchy. Definitely recommend (and it's a pretty quick read!) no reviews | add a review
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The Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in. Twining the drama of the everyday -- school-age crushes, paying bills, the sickness of parents -- with the surreal -- rivers of thighs, men for sale, and fields of throats -- Cassie's realities alternate to create a blurred, fantastic world of haunting beauty. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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