A review by storytimed
September Girls by Bennett Madison
2.0
Technically well-written, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe it was Maybe it was the casual disregard of most of the girls except the one or two that our protagonists deigned to romance. Maybe it was the continued insistence that Sam is a good guy (in fact, according to some, Sam is the best guy, even though he's not: he's a regular teen boy who's kind of a half-assed coward and objectifies women and casually prejudiced. The guy won't even read New Yorker stories if the writers have "too obviously foreign names" (which, what the fuck?). The narrative, however, is enamored of him, and shapes itself around his manpain. There is a beautiful story located somewhere in the depths of September Girls, the story of Kristle and DeeDee and Taffany groping their ways toward selfhood, but, unfortunately, all we get is Sam's.
Also, what the hell was up with the mom? Does Bennet Madison have something against feminists and Farmville? Just a really bizarre characterization that went nowhere.
Edit after reading a bunch of reviews on Goodreads: Yes, I get that this novel is supposed to be deconstructing and criticizing patriarchal notions of sexuality and masculinity. I like that male virginity is paid attention to here, and I like that the myth of masculinity is deconstructed, and I like that the girls attempt to find their own ways. However: the execution, especially the anemic "maybe-let's-ignore-it" response to oppression, is where the book fails, especially since the one woman we do see who interacts with feminism and methods of resisting the patriarchy is criticized for it.
At the end of the book, it's implied that the girls' situation has been going on pretty much for generations, and yet nobody shows any impetus to change things. For example: when Sam first meets Dee, she complains about not having enough to read, and for the whole book I kept waiting for Sam to give her the novel that his brother spends the beginning trying and failing to read, Infinite Jest. And then it never happened.
The Girls never get any good reading material. They live in (essentially) poverty, cramped conditions that necessitate them bunking two to a bed. Why does nobody work to make the beach a big resort town, in order to attract more people? Why, if the Island has an Internet cafe, shitty as it is, do none of the Girls turn to online dating to get guys to come to them? I understand that Bennet Madison's trying to make a point about the ubiquity and force of the patriarchy, but what he does not understand is that, no matter how insurmountable the forces against us, women have always fought.
Spoiler
the fact that nothing really changed for most of the girls: oh, yeah, the one our protagonist fucked is okay, who cares about the rest?Also, what the hell was up with the mom? Does Bennet Madison have something against feminists and Farmville? Just a really bizarre characterization that went nowhere.
Edit after reading a bunch of reviews on Goodreads: Yes, I get that this novel is supposed to be deconstructing and criticizing patriarchal notions of sexuality and masculinity. I like that male virginity is paid attention to here, and I like that the myth of masculinity is deconstructed, and I like that the girls attempt to find their own ways. However: the execution, especially the anemic "maybe-let's-ignore-it" response to oppression, is where the book fails, especially since the one woman we do see who interacts with feminism and methods of resisting the patriarchy is criticized for it.
At the end of the book, it's implied that the girls' situation has been going on pretty much for generations, and yet nobody shows any impetus to change things. For example: when Sam first meets Dee, she complains about not having enough to read, and for the whole book I kept waiting for Sam to give her the novel that his brother spends the beginning trying and failing to read, Infinite Jest. And then it never happened.
The Girls never get any good reading material. They live in (essentially) poverty, cramped conditions that necessitate them bunking two to a bed. Why does nobody work to make the beach a big resort town, in order to attract more people? Why, if the Island has an Internet cafe, shitty as it is, do none of the Girls turn to online dating to get guys to come to them? I understand that Bennet Madison's trying to make a point about the ubiquity and force of the patriarchy, but what he does not understand is that, no matter how insurmountable the forces against us, women have always fought.