catbooking's review against another edition
3.0
For the first few pages of the book I had the suspicion that I was reading something like the movie “Dark City”, where things don't make sense but everyone on the page pretends that they do and goes on about their life. As I kept reading, however, I had to abandon that earlier assumption.
I do not think there is anything paranormal or supernatural happening in the story. All the talk of sorcerers and robots and girls turned into beads is a way for a highly restrictive society, 50s US, to talk about things you are not allowed to talk about openly. Two young mothers gossiping about the new family that moved in next door may not refer to the newcomers as 'robots' but the group of girls listening nearby may pick up on the perceived oddness of the family and use the term when referencing the family in their social circle. Same can be said for the girls that stopped being girls and the girls that never were girls in the first place, or the son of the local landowner visiting the community to 'hunt' but never being part of it himself.
The unsettling clinical descriptions of sex, or arguably sexual assault, reminded me of a discussion I read not too long ago. Sex, and sexual violence, is usually used to show the depravity of a villain or to demonstrate the suffering of a female character, rarely is it used for a positive exploration of a female character's sexuality. While I do not think I would enjoy reading about the opposite, a penis serving as a catalyst in a female character discovering herself, I do notice myself taking a closer look to how sex is depicted in print.
In this case specifically, sex is accompanied by either discomfort, fear, and symbolic destruction in the eyes of society or is so mechanical as to not rise above clinical descriptions of a pumping motion. Even while the two destined lovebirds are doing it, it seems that both of them are only going through the motions and neither of them are enjoying it. That would place this book squarely into the bin of sex being a solely negative experience for women, both the act and the consequence of it.
Ultimately, I think the story is about feeling like your whole life is wasted if you only do what you think society expects from you and if you never make any decisions for yourself. But even if you do make the conscious choice to do what society tells you as to better 'fit in' you are still going to be miserable. Or, if you are one of those lucky enough to force your choices on others, your life is not going to be full of happiness either. So misery for everybody! And here I made a promise to myself to read more optimistic books.
I do not think there is anything paranormal or supernatural happening in the story. All the talk of sorcerers and robots and girls turned into beads is a way for a highly restrictive society, 50s US, to talk about things you are not allowed to talk about openly. Two young mothers gossiping about the new family that moved in next door may not refer to the newcomers as 'robots' but the group of girls listening nearby may pick up on the perceived oddness of the family and use the term when referencing the family in their social circle. Same can be said for the girls that stopped being girls and the girls that never were girls in the first place, or the son of the local landowner visiting the community to 'hunt' but never being part of it himself.
The unsettling clinical descriptions of sex, or arguably sexual assault, reminded me of a discussion I read not too long ago. Sex, and sexual violence, is usually used to show the depravity of a villain or to demonstrate the suffering of a female character, rarely is it used for a positive exploration of a female character's sexuality. While I do not think I would enjoy reading about the opposite, a penis serving as a catalyst in a female character discovering herself, I do notice myself taking a closer look to how sex is depicted in print.
In this case specifically, sex is accompanied by either discomfort, fear, and symbolic destruction in the eyes of society or is so mechanical as to not rise above clinical descriptions of a pumping motion. Even while the two destined lovebirds are doing it, it seems that both of them are only going through the motions and neither of them are enjoying it. That would place this book squarely into the bin of sex being a solely negative experience for women, both the act and the consequence of it.
Ultimately, I think the story is about feeling like your whole life is wasted if you only do what you think society expects from you and if you never make any decisions for yourself. But even if you do make the conscious choice to do what society tells you as to better 'fit in' you are still going to be miserable. Or, if you are one of those lucky enough to force your choices on others, your life is not going to be full of happiness either. So misery for everybody! And here I made a promise to myself to read more optimistic books.
chaserush's review against another edition
4.25
Compelling, strange, and deeply moving. Davis is masterful here at painting over the most mundane existences with surreal, dreamy colors. The plot veers into the abstract, and the lack of narrative cohesion points instead toward the striking emotions the descriptions and dialogue leaves you with at the close of each chapter/story.
An introspective look at what it means to grow up (mainly as a young girl) and what it feels like to look back on your life and either realize you’ve wasted it or notice the all of the beautifully mundane steps you took to land you where you are.
An introspective look at what it means to grow up (mainly as a young girl) and what it feels like to look back on your life and either realize you’ve wasted it or notice the all of the beautifully mundane steps you took to land you where you are.
zoemaja's review against another edition
3.0
Very very weird. Now I like weird so I liked this book, but it may have been the strangest book I have ever read.
library book kindle
library book kindle
pizzagreaze's review against another edition
Wrong book at the wrong time in my life. It's challenging in an incomprehensible way that I no longer find attractive.
liamknox13's review against another edition
3.0
One of the strangest books I’ve ever read, if not the strangest. I can’t decide if it’s too strange (that’d be saying a lot for me), or if the vibes were interesting enough to make up for the state of total bafflement the “plot” put me in. But the writing is striking and beautiful so points for that. Going to name my son “Body-without-Soul.”
michaelnordt's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
natesea's review against another edition
3.0
This is a wonderfully strange novel that comes together as a collection of related stories. It reads like a Dalí painting. There is a sorcerer, robots, Aquanauts, Scows, and Horsewomen, to name a few, and space/time is fluid. Though this may sound a bit much, all are weaved together in a suburban world we all recognize, living in duplexes on a suburban street, striding toward a life of normalcy with all the joys and disappointments that brings.
She was staring toward the back of the yard where there was a little birdbath that had a statue of St. Francis standing in the middle of the water, looking down at it, watching a gray-brown bird. What became of all the interesting parts, she asked, things like getting taken up into the sky, or being part horse, or being immortal?
Well, duh, Janice said. That the point. Haven't you been paying attention? That's the Great Division, like I was saying. That's the hinge. On one side, St. Francis there receives the stigmata. On the other side, he isn't even a saint. He's a stonemason, something along those lines. She took a seat at the patio table and lit a cigarette. Maybe he gets lungs cancer, she said, blowing out smoke. Stranger things have happened.
She was staring toward the back of the yard where there was a little birdbath that had a statue of St. Francis standing in the middle of the water, looking down at it, watching a gray-brown bird. What became of all the interesting parts, she asked, things like getting taken up into the sky, or being part horse, or being immortal?
Well, duh, Janice said. That the point. Haven't you been paying attention? That's the Great Division, like I was saying. That's the hinge. On one side, St. Francis there receives the stigmata. On the other side, he isn't even a saint. He's a stonemason, something along those lines. She took a seat at the patio table and lit a cigarette. Maybe he gets lungs cancer, she said, blowing out smoke. Stranger things have happened.
mmcloe's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this book is delirious and sparkling and mocking and joyous and horrifying and reality I LOVE it
Girlhood is such a simultaneously bizarre, fragile, robust, and liminal experience and this novel does an exceptional job at capturing the mythological and social facets of girlhood and womanhood (at least, a specific mid-century suburban type of girlhood and womanhood) that successfully stabs at its reality in a way that very few "realist" novels do. I think the book warrants reading upon reading upon reading to tease out all of its subtexts and tricks and themes. I think a kind of post-structuralist linguistic reading would be deeply productive and fascinating - the book plays with language and syntax in such a way that I believe its mirroring the process of language production to draw similar attention to the way that gender and identity are similarly and differently mediated through language and social engagement. Really really standout.
I'm adding this to the category of books that makes me feel like the author has used the book to cast a spell of some kind - along with Mona, Yellow Back Radio Broke Down, Near to the Wild Heart, and Dhalgren.
Girlhood is such a simultaneously bizarre, fragile, robust, and liminal experience and this novel does an exceptional job at capturing the mythological and social facets of girlhood and womanhood (at least, a specific mid-century suburban type of girlhood and womanhood) that successfully stabs at its reality in a way that very few "realist" novels do. I think the book warrants reading upon reading upon reading to tease out all of its subtexts and tricks and themes. I think a kind of post-structuralist linguistic reading would be deeply productive and fascinating - the book plays with language and syntax in such a way that I believe its mirroring the process of language production to draw similar attention to the way that gender and identity are similarly and differently mediated through language and social engagement. Really really standout.
I'm adding this to the category of books that makes me feel like the author has used the book to cast a spell of some kind - along with Mona, Yellow Back Radio Broke Down, Near to the Wild Heart, and Dhalgren.
ktrain3900's review against another edition
4.0
Surreal, outright weird, but at the same time mundane (i.e. of the world), very realistic in its emotions. I understand how this isn't everyone's cup of tea. It's not exactly a novel, in the traditional sense, although it does follow something of a plot (or plots). It's prose poetry, modern folktales, stories within stories. Amidst robots, a sorcerer, horsewomen, oddities of time and space, the characters (Miss Vicks, Mary, the girl with curly hair, to name a few) feel and emote and live real, recognizable lives. And the girls and women have most of the adventures and largely get to drive the narrative.
quietdomino's review against another edition
4.0
Like watching tv in a foreign language. The parts all make sense until they don't.