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emi_dilli's review against another edition
4.0
Crude in all senses and deliberately so. It would make an excellent pair to The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson. A fun, poignant, and emotive read.
diana_skelton's review against another edition
3.0
'The talking is also a way to make you represent something, culturally, that my femininity does not. I want to feel your decisiveness, your force. In lieu, perhaps, of feeling my own. I want to feel your capacity to resist me, your unaccommodatingness. Because otherwise you will not be A Man in the eyes of the world.
Eyes which are, of course, also mine.'
'"We need scarcely be surprised," Ellis concluded, "that of the myriads who embark on the sea of love, so few women, so very few men, come safely into port."'
'I travel in a loop of gender.
I was weaned on this -- the hypostasised, brutal man; the yielding, deferring woman.
So, by the way, were you.'
'After the admin at Marie Stopes, I said goodbye to him; he went to work, and I went under in my green gown. Before the wave subsumed me: a hazy doctor and nurse, and injection in my arm (or was it a pill?), a counting to ten but only getting to three. And then waking up in the ward, a surge of nausea, and tears. A nurse turned me onto my side, away from the women waiting to go in. And then down, down, down, further and further and further I tumbled -- Alice, pointy boots, tressed hair, topsy turvy into a tunnel of grief, into its numbing, invisible embrace.'
'There is nothing worse, for middle-class intellectuals, raised in secular rationalism and its own peculiar fundamentalism, than being irrational. Than being -- God forbid! -- stupid.'
'It's hard to want more, to be more, than a man.
Let the boy win at tennis!
To him, then, to the Man I Loved, to my own personal Magus, the pain said: I want so much more, but I am not going anywhere. I shall not show you up with my life. I shall take a scythe to myself. I shall hack at my roots. And I shall keep you company.'
Eyes which are, of course, also mine.'
'"We need scarcely be surprised," Ellis concluded, "that of the myriads who embark on the sea of love, so few women, so very few men, come safely into port."'
'I travel in a loop of gender.
I was weaned on this -- the hypostasised, brutal man; the yielding, deferring woman.
So, by the way, were you.'
'After the admin at Marie Stopes, I said goodbye to him; he went to work, and I went under in my green gown. Before the wave subsumed me: a hazy doctor and nurse, and injection in my arm (or was it a pill?), a counting to ten but only getting to three. And then waking up in the ward, a surge of nausea, and tears. A nurse turned me onto my side, away from the women waiting to go in. And then down, down, down, further and further and further I tumbled -- Alice, pointy boots, tressed hair, topsy turvy into a tunnel of grief, into its numbing, invisible embrace.'
'There is nothing worse, for middle-class intellectuals, raised in secular rationalism and its own peculiar fundamentalism, than being irrational. Than being -- God forbid! -- stupid.'
'It's hard to want more, to be more, than a man.
Let the boy win at tennis!
To him, then, to the Man I Loved, to my own personal Magus, the pain said: I want so much more, but I am not going anywhere. I shall not show you up with my life. I shall take a scythe to myself. I shall hack at my roots. And I shall keep you company.'
raelovestoread's review against another edition
3.0
This was a kind of poetic essay on how sexuality doesn't always gel harmoniously and conveniently with ones ideals and beliefs. It's a book about desire in all its messy complexity. It won't be everyone's cup of tea.
It was an interesting exploration of the clash between how the author feels versus how she/society thinks she should feel.
I'll give it 3 stars because I wished it had gone a bit deeper, really peeled back the layers of desire, pushed the boundaries a bit more. Still, I would consider reading another of her books.
It was an interesting exploration of the clash between how the author feels versus how she/society thinks she should feel.
I'll give it 3 stars because I wished it had gone a bit deeper, really peeled back the layers of desire, pushed the boundaries a bit more. Still, I would consider reading another of her books.
pattydsf's review against another edition
4.0
“Good loving can be fortuitous, partly a question of timing. A few years ago, emerging from a subterranean place – the lifting away of unhappiness – up, up, away! – a balloon released – I unfurled myself, out of a paralysis of thought, feeling, memory.”
It has been over three weeks since I finished this book. Every time I see it on my shelf, I question its existence. I am not sure why. It is so different from any book I remember reading. This is a book about sex written by a woman. Why does it continue to haunt me? I wasn’t bothered by the contents – I liked the contents. I like what Angel had to say about desire. However, I find that my review is, as the subtitle says, most difficult to tell.
At this point, I will say that Angel made me see myself, sexual desire, writing, personal memoirs and Virginia Woolf’s novels in a whole new light. I think I will have to read this again so that I can articulate what this essay did to me and for me.
It has been over three weeks since I finished this book. Every time I see it on my shelf, I question its existence. I am not sure why. It is so different from any book I remember reading. This is a book about sex written by a woman. Why does it continue to haunt me? I wasn’t bothered by the contents – I liked the contents. I like what Angel had to say about desire. However, I find that my review is, as the subtitle says, most difficult to tell.
At this point, I will say that Angel made me see myself, sexual desire, writing, personal memoirs and Virginia Woolf’s novels in a whole new light. I think I will have to read this again so that I can articulate what this essay did to me and for me.
kateoclaire's review against another edition
4.0
A bit pretentious, sure, but damn there are some lines I'll be thinking about for a long time. I think this is the type of book I'll reread a few times in my life, notes in the margins, taking something different and necessary away each time.
lifeinpoetry's review against another edition
4.0
This reminded me of Maggie Nelson's Bluets though I didn't love it quite as much. Interesting, personal, strange (with the foray into an abortion, the ensuing depression, the feminist politics of pornography). This was a quick experimental text on cishet female sexuality with quotes from Woolf, Sontag, etc. interspersed with the thoughts of the author on her relationship and on her own conflicting desires and how those desires interacted with her feminism.
andthyme's review against another edition
1.0
I didn't think you could write a book this boring about sex but boy was I wrong
lightsleeperstudio's review against another edition
3.0
Apparently I am on a Katherine Angel hype! This book was gifted to me by a friend after she saw I was reading Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again, and found Angel’s debut book for my birthday present. I was expecting it to be similar to her second book, and although themes were comparable, I couldn’t have been more wrong in terms of style. Unmastered flitters between freeform prose, political statements, memoir, poetry. It was a bit disorientating to begin with, especially as there are sometimes only four words on a page - I couldn’t help but think what a waste of paper. But as I sunk into it and understood the form, I enjoyed it more and more. She writes so passionately, I can feel her fire. It is erotic, political and vulnerable, I can see how her exploration of subject in this book stemmed into TSWBGA. The book is a quick read, I finished it in 3 days, but I feel you may be able to in one sitting if you love poetic prose.