A review by rdoose
Female Trouble by Antonya Nelson
3.0
3.5 stars. Effective stories and excellent writing -- complex female (and male) characters and stories about the side of life/reality that is often hidden or ignored.
However, nearly every story had a fatphobic comment, and it really kept me from fully enjoying/appreciating this collection. Fat characters only existed to be described as grotesque or comical, and if there were no fat characters in an individual story, the narrator still managed to work in a negative comment about fat people somehow. None of this served the stories in any significant way; I think it really dated the book, and made me question if there was some vitriol on the author's part because it was so incessant. I couldn't decided if she just really hates fat people, or if it was a lazy use of caricature. It's just a perspective that I prefer to keep out of my life, and I'm disappointed that it colored what was otherwise a thoughtful collection.
However, nearly every story had a fatphobic comment, and it really kept me from fully enjoying/appreciating this collection. Fat characters only existed to be described as grotesque or comical, and if there were no fat characters in an individual story, the narrator still managed to work in a negative comment about fat people somehow. None of this served the stories in any significant way; I think it really dated the book, and made me question if there was some vitriol on the author's part because it was so incessant. I couldn't decided if she just really hates fat people, or if it was a lazy use of caricature. It's just a perspective that I prefer to keep out of my life, and I'm disappointed that it colored what was otherwise a thoughtful collection.