The story that affected me most in Carmen Maria Machado’s collection, Her Body And Other Parties (2017), was “Inventory.” A woman takes inventory of her life by making an annotated list of all the men and women she’s had sex with. There’s a compelling story why she’s doing this, but I felt a bit manipulated as a reader following the arc of this story. Most of these stories are fueled by sex. In “The Husband Stitch,” a woman marries a man and promises him she will do anything for him…with one restriction. After two pages, I figured out what the conclusion would be. It’s a variation on the classic story, “The Green Ribbon” and Alvin Schwartz’s In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories. None of the women in the eight stories in Her Body And Other Parties seem very happy with their decisions, sexual and otherwise. The only dud is “Especially Heinous” (subtitled “272 Views of Law & Order: SVU”) where Machado provides episode synopses (some are snarky) poking fun at cop TV shows. The “joke” goes on too long. Although Her Body And Other Parties has garnered good reviews, it’s getting a very lukewarm rating from me. GRADE: C
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The husband stitch 3
Inventory 33
Mothers 45
Especially heinous 65
Real women have bodies 125
Eight bites 149
The resident 169
Difficult at parties 219
This was on my radar due to the great reviews It has garnered. Now not so much.
Steve, the reviews drew me to HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES. But Machado’s “parties” left me hung over.
Another clean miss for me!
Bob, I wish I’d skipped HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES. I’m suffering from “Reader’s Remorse” after finishing this book.
I’m always looking for good new short story collections, but thanks for warning me off this one. I’m reading Kipling now, with the new Crippen & Landru collection (James Holding) on deck.
Jeff, since you inspired me to read a short story each day (going on 20 years!) I always have a collection or anthology on hand. I try just to read Good Stuff, but once in a while I get tricked by “Good Reviews” and end up reading books like HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES.
I’m skimming it to see if anyone mentions my name — Okay so far.
Dan, you’re safe!
Sounds like a waste of time. By the way, are you planning to read KA – Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley? Here’s a link:
http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ka/John-Crowley/9781481495592
Rick, I’m not a fan of John Crowley’s work. Too much work for too little reward.
I’m at about the 50 page point, and so far enjoying it. But then I like the natural history aspect.
Rick, I wish John Crowley wrote shorter books.
The early novels were certainly short enough…
Todd, the early Harry Stubbs books are about as long as half an ACE Double!