Her Body and Other Parties Stories
Reviews
This one (sadly), was a miss for me ---
The only effective story being "The Husband Stitch."
• Everything else honestly felt like a waste of time that I could've spent elsewhere. . (Despite having the worse case of finishing something I've started).
• Maybe if I had ever seen a single episode of Law and Order, "Especially Heinous" would've been more relevant/interesting to me, as that story alone takes up a huge portion of the book's length. (Upon hitting its forth season chapter, I could no longer force it, and had to move on).
• On a more positive note, I've heard the author's memoir "In the Dream House" is a much better read; so maybe I'll give that a go before completely writing off her work. .
Man, I always feel like such a dick when writing a bad review, as I know there's no way in hell I could ever even slightly muster up anything close to the books I didn't enjoy. But it's strictly going off honest, personal vibes. *shrugs*
Really liked “The Husband Stitch”, “Inventory” and “Real Women Have Bodies” but the rest was a bit of a drag :/
Especially the long ass SVU story, it took me out of it because I’ve never watched the show so I couldn’t really visualize what was happening.
Love loved genre bending short stories - didn't read the one base on svu tho
The Husband Stitch 3.5/5
Inventory 2/5
Mothers 3/5
Especially Heinous 3/5
Real Women Have Bodies 3/5
Eight Bites 3/5
The Resident 2.5/5
Difficult at Parties 2.5/5
Fever-dreamy
This is my new favorite collection of short stories.
Reading Her Body means existing in a universe akin to those Márquez created while simultaneously being treated to honest and refreshing depictions of same-sex relationships. Machado’s talents are numerous, but her greatest achievement here is the coherency she manages while molding contemporary concerns with a magical realist’s eye for dream-like worlds, all in the space of a short story.
This anthology is packed to the brim with sensuality, horror, commentary on society's interactions with women specifically, and so many bodies. This past semester, I took a class that made me think so heavily about the anthology as a body as well, and I couldn't help but bring that into my reading of Machado's work. Her writing is both provocative and gorgeous, taking you through each unique story the same ways one might traverse and interact with a body: tenderly, roughly, impassively, and drowning in thoughts of what we have and what we desire. I think The Husband Stitch (which I have read before) and The Resident are two of the stronger stories here and resonate heavily with the overall theme of this anthology, though some of the stories feel a bit weaker compared to these. Overall though, the book-body that is this anthology is full of horrifying and haunting narratives the same way our real-life bodies tend to be.
This collection was incredible. Essentially without genre, these stories have elements of horror, comedy, sci-fi, etc, and the writing never falters from Machado's wholly unique voice and style. All stories tell of women and their interactions - with men and their demands, with themselves, with society and it's pressures. A couple stumbles (Especially Heinous was.. not for me) but overall this was really really great. #readqueer
I was recommended this book by a bookstore employee when I was visiting my aunt in Northhampton, MA this past summer. I really enjoyed this book so much that I wrote a postcard to the bookstore employee to thank them for the rec my favorite stories are Inventory and Real Woman Have Bodies.
“I have heard all of the stories about girls like me, and I am unafraid to make more of them.” I feel like this is a book you'll either really love or leave a feeling like it got a little muddled/little lost in the stories. Each story gives you something but leaves you needing and wanting more. They challenge the creative mind. I personally got slightly bored with the middle stories. I loved the beginning and end but the middle felt a little slow. I would still highly recommend the book, especially at this time of woman being able to let out their life stories more freely.
short stories by carmen maria machado are not enough i need a whole novel
"Do you ever worry about writing the madwoman-in-the-attic story? "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean." "You know. That old trope. Writing a story where the female protagonist is utterly batty. It's sort of tiresome and regressive and, well, done"-- here she gesticulated so forcefully that a few drops of red [wine] spattered the tablecloth-- "don't you think? And the mad lesbian, isn't that a stereotype as well?["] --p. 203, "The Resident" I dunno. Many of the stylistic choices came across as contrived rather than clever; I would probably have liked them a lot more had I read this as a teenager. The author really loves her lists. Someone more well-versed in horror tropes and/or Law & Order: SVU might get more out of these stories than I did. My favorite story in the collection was "Eight Bites."
i have mixed feelings because while i really liked some stories, some of them were too vague or dragged too much imo .. but i think this book is so amazingly written and forces you to think and come up with your own interpretations, which is something i really loved about it
read for class. really enjoyed inventory.
I read this for a book club (@dinnerpartybooks on ig) and I liked it! There were a few stories I loved more than the others, but for the most part, it pretty much evened out to a book I enjoyed. It’s a stunning debut from CMM, so now I’m looking even more forward to read “In the Dream House”. :)
Los cuentos: magníficos. Pero, la narración dejó mucho que desear.
the first story has me in a chokehold
fabulously fun, thought provoking, multi-genre book with a fascinating, incendiary voice. definitely one of the highlight of 2017
Gothic fairytales for the modern age. There’s a queer & feminist thread through each of the stories. I’d read & loved The Husband Stitch several times previously but hoped for the other stories to match up to its brilliance. I enjoyed them, but none quite reached that lofty bar.
Read time: 4h 50m
CMM, I love you. A master at atmospheric setting, eeriness and feminine horror. I think this book deserves all the hype and more. Some stories I liked more than others, but overall a brilliant collection and stunning writing. All the themes of patriarchy, mother-daughter relationships, guilt and the kind of love that is so desperate it grows into something unrecognisable. I cannot talk about this enough.
I loved in the Dream House and I would consider it a favorite. I wish I could say the same for this.
don't like the writing style
Haunting and abstract
Highlights
Men are permitted to write concealed autobiography, but I cannot do the same? It's ego if I do it?
Her gaze transfixes me, and this close I can see a band of gold around each of her pupils, as though her eyes are twin solar eclipses.
The nurse shows me how to nurse him, and I am so happy to feel him drink, to touch the curls of his fingers, little commas, each of them.
Stories can sense happiness and snuff it out like a candle.
“Why do you want to hide it from me?”
“I'm not hiding it. It just isn't yours.”
I do not even struggle to speak; the spark of words dies so deep in my chest there is not even space to mount them on an exhale.
I understood that knowledge was a dwarfing, obliterating, all- consuming thing, and to have it was to both be grateful and suffer greatly. I was a creature so small, trapped in some crevice of an indifferent universe.
The woman I did and did not recognize called herself by a name that I immediately forgot. I do not mean that I wasn't paying attention; rather, she said her name and as my mind closed around it, it slipped away like mercury from probing fingers.
I was glad I couldn't read her mind. I knew her thoughts would break my heart.
"I love you," I say. It's the first time I've said it, and it tastes strange in my mouth-real but not ready, like a too-hard pear.
feel like my feet are trapdoors that have sprung open, and my insides are hurtling out of my body.
When she sits up again, the ceiling fan frames her head like a glowing halo, like she's a Madonna in a medieval painting.
Benson and the DA are both late to work, and smell like each other.
They clean the windows. They order pizza and talk about first loves.
The girls-with-bells-for-eyes try to make her soup, but their hands pass through the cupboard handles.
YOu never live With a woman, you live inside of her, I overneard my father say to my brother once, and it was, indeed, as if, when peering into the mirror, you were blinking out through her thickly fringed eyes.
I realize the world will continue to turn, even with no people on it. Maybe it will go a little faster.
He touched my face when we fucked and said I was beautiful, and I jerked my head a little to dislodge his fingers.
I felt good, like an adult who has sex sometimes, and a life.
It is like him to not understand what there is to be afraid of in this world, but I am still furious.
He is so beautiful I have to remind myself to breathe.
I have no siblings, but I know that eldest girls sweeten their brothers and are protected by them from the dangers of the world--an arrangement that buoys my heart.
what plays on the insides of my eyelids asI fall asleep.