A review by kleonard
The Corset & The Jellyfish: A Conundrum of Drabbles by Nick Bantock

2.0

Like many others, I read Bantock's Griffin and Sabine books with some pleasure, mostly because I wasn't really thinking too hard when I was reading them. But the shine has gone off; this newest book, a collection of "drabbles," or 100-word stories, while full of references to a wide variety of other literature and beautiful language and pretty words strung together, is also full of the male gaze, objectifying women. It gets pretty gross. In addition, I don't love the conceit: the author found a manuscript, but it's out of order, Can readers figure out the intended order, and is there a hidden message? This kind of presentation is often--and certainly is, in this case--an author trying to prove how smart they are, and telling their readers that they have to work harder to figure out what the author actually means to say.