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A review by jentidders
The Motion of the Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver
1.0
I was looking forward to reading a new novel from Lionel Shriver, having enjoyed We Need To Talk About Kevin and The Post Birthday World, but unfortunately, I clearly hadn't been paying attention to the controversy surrounding her, as otherwise, I wouldn't have picked it up.
Straight off the bat, something seemed off. The main protagonist, Serenata really came across as ‘author as character’, and so some of the views she had, made me feel pretty uncomfortable. As well as being infuriatingly too-cool-for-school and stopping liking things as soon as they become popular, she has problems with people disapproving of cultural appropriation, racism, misogyny and gender issues, or caring about climate change.
OK.
So, I DNFed the book and decided to do a bit of investigation online.
In 2016, Shriver gave a controversial speech about cultural appropriation. Having been criticized for her depiction of Latino and African-American characters in The Mandibles, she responded that accusations of racism and cultural appropriation were tantamount to censorship.
Then in 2018, she had a whine about diversity in publishing suggesting that a manuscript "written by a gay transgender Caribbean who dropped out of school at seven" would be published "whether or not said manuscript is an incoherent, tedious, meandering and insensible pile of mixed-paper recycling".
Yeah.
As you can hopefully tell by my feed, I would rather read a million books by diverse LGBTQ/POC authors, than another word of what is genuinely tedious and meandering self-indulgent drivel by this or any other white, middle-aged, right-wing boomer.
Basically, do not buy this, do not read this - support one of the many, many diverse and own voices authors out who are writing inclusive, incisive, and interesting fiction that actually reflects the world around us.
Thanks to Harper Collins for the digital copy - I hope they can appreciate me giving an honest review!
Straight off the bat, something seemed off. The main protagonist, Serenata really came across as ‘author as character’, and so some of the views she had, made me feel pretty uncomfortable. As well as being infuriatingly too-cool-for-school and stopping liking things as soon as they become popular, she has problems with people disapproving of cultural appropriation, racism, misogyny and gender issues, or caring about climate change.
OK.
So, I DNFed the book and decided to do a bit of investigation online.
In 2016, Shriver gave a controversial speech about cultural appropriation. Having been criticized for her depiction of Latino and African-American characters in The Mandibles, she responded that accusations of racism and cultural appropriation were tantamount to censorship.
Then in 2018, she had a whine about diversity in publishing suggesting that a manuscript "written by a gay transgender Caribbean who dropped out of school at seven" would be published "whether or not said manuscript is an incoherent, tedious, meandering and insensible pile of mixed-paper recycling".
Yeah.
As you can hopefully tell by my feed, I would rather read a million books by diverse LGBTQ/POC authors, than another word of what is genuinely tedious and meandering self-indulgent drivel by this or any other white, middle-aged, right-wing boomer.
Basically, do not buy this, do not read this - support one of the many, many diverse and own voices authors out who are writing inclusive, incisive, and interesting fiction that actually reflects the world around us.
Thanks to Harper Collins for the digital copy - I hope they can appreciate me giving an honest review!