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stormkeeper_lovedorisLast book report of 2008:
Cunt by Inga Muscio – This book kind of defies description. I liked it, that much I know for sure. It was different, in a good way. Muscio writes with sharp humor and bold honesty. She writes about women’s bodies being devalued in this culture, she writes about the importance of knowing your own body and working together with other women to fight off oppression. She writes about sexuality. She writes about the word “cunt”: “Cunt is the crusty, disgusting bottle in the city dump pile that is bejeweled underneath and has a beautiful genie inside”. Grade: B
Caspian Rain by Gina Nahai – This was a very emotional, lyrical, and sad novel about a young girl, Yaas, growing up in pre-revolutionary Iran. She is born to parents with a loveless marriage, and must make her way in a world where gossip and shame determine a woman’s standing in life. It was gripping and moving. Grade: B
More behind the cut, including Alison Bechdel’s “The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For”, and the best-seller “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd – I was looking forward to reading this popular book – it’s a novel about a 14 year old girl in 1960’s South Carolina who finds refuge from a difficult home life with a trio of beekeeping sisters. I didn’t find it that moving or fascinating. The narrator’s voice didn’t strike me as authentic; I had trouble believing that this was really a 14 year old girl. Some aspects of the plot seemed quite far-fetched and contrived. I tried to suspend my disbelief and allow for poetic license – obviously the author’s trying to tell a story, make some metaphors, and we have to give her some leeway – but I just didn’t think the story was that effective. Am I being too critical of this book because it was a bestseller? I think what I disliked the most was that despite giving lip service to the civil rights movement and to racial injustice, in this book we still basically see Black people functioning as nurturers for whites. Grade: C
Generations: A Century of Women Speak About Their Lives edited by Myriam Miedzian and Alisa Malinovich – This was a huge book, clocking in at 550 pages. But it was really good. The book is basically snippets of interviews with American women. The idea was to illustrate the mammoth changes in American women’s lives from the start of the 1900’s to that century’s conclusion. So the women interviewed cover a large range of ages, and are also diverse in terms of race, religion, economic status, and sexual orientation. I think the book definitely accomplished its objective: you can’t help but to be awed at the changes and improvements in the lives of women, whether they be in the area of work, family, relationships, technology, education, or anything else. I must admit that the lazy part of me wishes this book was just a tad shorter, as it took a while to finish. Grade: B
And now, my longest review ever (even lengthier than my review for Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Bait and Switch”):
The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for by Alison Bechdel –
Bechdel is the author of the best-selling graphic novel “Fun Home” and she also has been writing, for 21 years, an on-going epic comic strip about a group of lesbians. What is so remarkable is that she never ran out of ideas for her characters’ lives – she kept it fresh and fun and interesting. It’s always interspersed with witty political and social commentary. This book is an anthology of most of the strips from the last 21 years, as well as some of the newer strips which have never before been published in book format. “Dykes” is really the history of a community. Bechdel illustrates how lesbians’ lives have evolved – both in terms of the lives of her dozen or so characters and the community at large. She captures changing attitudes towards having children, transgender issues, bisexuality, feminism, and more.
You can even glimpse Bechdel’s own changing views. There used to be no male characters but we now have a straight guy (Stuart) as a main character, and gay guy Carlos makes regular appearances. I once read an interview with Bechdel where she said her allegiance has shifted to those who share her world views instead of with all lesbians in general. For example, Sparrow’s ex-girlfriend June, a money-grubbing SUV driver, is subtly dissed and Sparrow is now paired with male feminist and peace activist Stuart. Bechdel still comes through with great political commentary: Sparrow notes how much better service she gets in restaurants now that she goes in public with a male, as opposed to when she and June used to go out. (As someone who frequently dines in restaurants without a male, I can attest to this).
When the strip starts, several of its characters work at a feminist bookstore. Years later, the bookstore is forced to close, due to competition from the mega-chains like Buns and Noodle, and Bounders. That’s real life, which Bechdel does such a great job capturing.
Bechdel’s illustrations are excellent too; I love seeing how her drawings really improved over the years. Look at the backgrounds of her panels – there are usually some neat things that those with a closer eye for detail will pick up on. “28 Pages of ‘Seinfeld’ coverage!” declares one newspaper headline, obviously bypassing more serious issues. And I have to love the title we see in the background of one of Carlos’s porn tapes - “Midnight Plowboy.” And the headline “Cute Girls Issue” blares from the title of a popular lesbian magazine...I think Bechdel is making a point that she wishes the magazine covered weightier topics. I also love the panel where two characters pass a movie theater, and a movie poster in the background advertises, “Another movie about a guy” – which still pretty much sums up the choices we see in theaters.
And it’s funny! Dykes is always funny as hell. There are too many hilarious moments to point them all out. But a few that come to mind are the scene where Toni’s homophobic parents visit from Puerto Rico and an unexpected visit by the social worker causes Toni to tell her parents in Spanish, that the visitor is a nun – and double meanings are the hilarious result. Even smaller scenes are funny: in one scene, Toni is depressed and Mo tries to comfort her by reminding her that her woes are comparatively small since we live on a planet rife with horrors such as racism, violence, and poverty. “Thanks, Mo,” Toni replied, “You always know just how to cheer someone up”. And I loved the line: “Right. Blame me for your crack-smoking teenager,” which Mo mutters upon hearing another opinion scapegoating the breakdown of the family (read: gays and lesbians, and women working outside of the home) for society’s ills. The political commentary is always spot-on.
I love seeing the characters grow and change. I remember when Clarice and Toni’s son Raffi was born, and now he’s a teenager. A few times we have been the other kids make fun of him for having two mothers. Did I mention that the strip gets emotional? Emotional in the sense that you feel for the character, you come to care about them and think of them as part of your family.
If I had to think of one mistake in the strip, it’s the inclusion of Sydney. I can’t stand the materialistic, philandering, jargon-spewing lover of Mo. She’s been in the strip for 12 years and I still dislike her. At least she provides a foil for some of the characters and brings in a different perspective. But ewww. In Dykes’s later years, I really found that I preferred the scenes with either Clarice, Toni, and their imploding nuclear family or the scenes with those who lived in the group home (Lois, Sparrow, Stuart, sometimes Ginger, sometimes Janice, Jasmine, and Samia) over the scenes with Mo and Sydney. I also wish that the character Thea hadn’t been abandoned. I wouldn’t mind seeing how Harriet and her child are doing either.
So, unfortunately, it looks like “Dykes” is on hiatus. In fact, in a recent interview it sounds like Bechdel said that the hiatus will be permanent. I will miss it. If she is out of energy and inspiration for the strip, then of course I do think she should give it a rest. I hope someday she might return to it again. Even if she doesn’t though, the success of “Fun Home” hopefully indicates that we’ll see lots more from Bechdel.
Grade: (if it isn’t obvious) A
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself by Amy Richards – There was nothing wrong with this book, and Richards is a fine writer; she coauthored “Grassroots”, which I loved and which even inspired me to write a journal entry on activism. My problem with it was that it didn’t live up to its subtitle. I wanted more on, you know, having a child without losing yourself. Instead this well-written book was more like a solid, informative piece about cultural debates on motherhood, covering different women’s choices to work out of the home or not, experience natural childbirth or not, alternative families, alternative means of insemination, etc. It just wasn’t what I was looking for or expecting and, given how long my “to read” list is, I didn’t see sufficient reason to finish reading it.
Cunt by Inga Muscio – This book kind of defies description. I liked it, that much I know for sure. It was different, in a good way. Muscio writes with sharp humor and bold honesty. She writes about women’s bodies being devalued in this culture, she writes about the importance of knowing your own body and working together with other women to fight off oppression. She writes about sexuality. She writes about the word “cunt”: “Cunt is the crusty, disgusting bottle in the city dump pile that is bejeweled underneath and has a beautiful genie inside”. Grade: B
Caspian Rain by Gina Nahai – This was a very emotional, lyrical, and sad novel about a young girl, Yaas, growing up in pre-revolutionary Iran. She is born to parents with a loveless marriage, and must make her way in a world where gossip and shame determine a woman’s standing in life. It was gripping and moving. Grade: B
More behind the cut, including Alison Bechdel’s “The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For”, and the best-seller “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd – I was looking forward to reading this popular book – it’s a novel about a 14 year old girl in 1960’s South Carolina who finds refuge from a difficult home life with a trio of beekeeping sisters. I didn’t find it that moving or fascinating. The narrator’s voice didn’t strike me as authentic; I had trouble believing that this was really a 14 year old girl. Some aspects of the plot seemed quite far-fetched and contrived. I tried to suspend my disbelief and allow for poetic license – obviously the author’s trying to tell a story, make some metaphors, and we have to give her some leeway – but I just didn’t think the story was that effective. Am I being too critical of this book because it was a bestseller? I think what I disliked the most was that despite giving lip service to the civil rights movement and to racial injustice, in this book we still basically see Black people functioning as nurturers for whites. Grade: C
Generations: A Century of Women Speak About Their Lives edited by Myriam Miedzian and Alisa Malinovich – This was a huge book, clocking in at 550 pages. But it was really good. The book is basically snippets of interviews with American women. The idea was to illustrate the mammoth changes in American women’s lives from the start of the 1900’s to that century’s conclusion. So the women interviewed cover a large range of ages, and are also diverse in terms of race, religion, economic status, and sexual orientation. I think the book definitely accomplished its objective: you can’t help but to be awed at the changes and improvements in the lives of women, whether they be in the area of work, family, relationships, technology, education, or anything else. I must admit that the lazy part of me wishes this book was just a tad shorter, as it took a while to finish. Grade: B
And now, my longest review ever (even lengthier than my review for Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Bait and Switch”):
The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for by Alison Bechdel –
Bechdel is the author of the best-selling graphic novel “Fun Home” and she also has been writing, for 21 years, an on-going epic comic strip about a group of lesbians. What is so remarkable is that she never ran out of ideas for her characters’ lives – she kept it fresh and fun and interesting. It’s always interspersed with witty political and social commentary. This book is an anthology of most of the strips from the last 21 years, as well as some of the newer strips which have never before been published in book format. “Dykes” is really the history of a community. Bechdel illustrates how lesbians’ lives have evolved – both in terms of the lives of her dozen or so characters and the community at large. She captures changing attitudes towards having children, transgender issues, bisexuality, feminism, and more.
You can even glimpse Bechdel’s own changing views. There used to be no male characters but we now have a straight guy (Stuart) as a main character, and gay guy Carlos makes regular appearances. I once read an interview with Bechdel where she said her allegiance has shifted to those who share her world views instead of with all lesbians in general. For example, Sparrow’s ex-girlfriend June, a money-grubbing SUV driver, is subtly dissed and Sparrow is now paired with male feminist and peace activist Stuart. Bechdel still comes through with great political commentary: Sparrow notes how much better service she gets in restaurants now that she goes in public with a male, as opposed to when she and June used to go out. (As someone who frequently dines in restaurants without a male, I can attest to this).
When the strip starts, several of its characters work at a feminist bookstore. Years later, the bookstore is forced to close, due to competition from the mega-chains like Buns and Noodle, and Bounders. That’s real life, which Bechdel does such a great job capturing.
Bechdel’s illustrations are excellent too; I love seeing how her drawings really improved over the years. Look at the backgrounds of her panels – there are usually some neat things that those with a closer eye for detail will pick up on. “28 Pages of ‘Seinfeld’ coverage!” declares one newspaper headline, obviously bypassing more serious issues. And I have to love the title we see in the background of one of Carlos’s porn tapes - “Midnight Plowboy.” And the headline “Cute Girls Issue” blares from the title of a popular lesbian magazine...I think Bechdel is making a point that she wishes the magazine covered weightier topics. I also love the panel where two characters pass a movie theater, and a movie poster in the background advertises, “Another movie about a guy” – which still pretty much sums up the choices we see in theaters.
And it’s funny! Dykes is always funny as hell. There are too many hilarious moments to point them all out. But a few that come to mind are the scene where Toni’s homophobic parents visit from Puerto Rico and an unexpected visit by the social worker causes Toni to tell her parents in Spanish, that the visitor is a nun – and double meanings are the hilarious result. Even smaller scenes are funny: in one scene, Toni is depressed and Mo tries to comfort her by reminding her that her woes are comparatively small since we live on a planet rife with horrors such as racism, violence, and poverty. “Thanks, Mo,” Toni replied, “You always know just how to cheer someone up”. And I loved the line: “Right. Blame me for your crack-smoking teenager,” which Mo mutters upon hearing another opinion scapegoating the breakdown of the family (read: gays and lesbians, and women working outside of the home) for society’s ills. The political commentary is always spot-on.
I love seeing the characters grow and change. I remember when Clarice and Toni’s son Raffi was born, and now he’s a teenager. A few times we have been the other kids make fun of him for having two mothers. Did I mention that the strip gets emotional? Emotional in the sense that you feel for the character, you come to care about them and think of them as part of your family.
If I had to think of one mistake in the strip, it’s the inclusion of Sydney. I can’t stand the materialistic, philandering, jargon-spewing lover of Mo. She’s been in the strip for 12 years and I still dislike her. At least she provides a foil for some of the characters and brings in a different perspective. But ewww. In Dykes’s later years, I really found that I preferred the scenes with either Clarice, Toni, and their imploding nuclear family or the scenes with those who lived in the group home (Lois, Sparrow, Stuart, sometimes Ginger, sometimes Janice, Jasmine, and Samia) over the scenes with Mo and Sydney. I also wish that the character Thea hadn’t been abandoned. I wouldn’t mind seeing how Harriet and her child are doing either.
So, unfortunately, it looks like “Dykes” is on hiatus. In fact, in a recent interview it sounds like Bechdel said that the hiatus will be permanent. I will miss it. If she is out of energy and inspiration for the strip, then of course I do think she should give it a rest. I hope someday she might return to it again. Even if she doesn’t though, the success of “Fun Home” hopefully indicates that we’ll see lots more from Bechdel.
Grade: (if it isn’t obvious) A
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself by Amy Richards – There was nothing wrong with this book, and Richards is a fine writer; she coauthored “Grassroots”, which I loved and which even inspired me to write a journal entry on activism. My problem with it was that it didn’t live up to its subtitle. I wanted more on, you know, having a child without losing yourself. Instead this well-written book was more like a solid, informative piece about cultural debates on motherhood, covering different women’s choices to work out of the home or not, experience natural childbirth or not, alternative families, alternative means of insemination, etc. It just wasn’t what I was looking for or expecting and, given how long my “to read” list is, I didn’t see sufficient reason to finish reading it.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 06:38 pm (UTC)You bring up a good point in Opting In - it drives me nuts when there's a subtitle like that and nothing about it in the book.
i'm disappointed to hear about the secret life of bees. i was hoping it would be wonderful too.
and cunt sounds really interesting!
Thanks for sharing!
no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 06:55 pm (UTC)Thanks again for the Dykes book!
And this feels funny to write, but I have "Cunt" and you're welcome to borrow it if you want. Yep, that sounds weird.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 08:20 pm (UTC)ROTFL!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 01:08 am (UTC)Eta: I agree with your assessment with The Secret Life of Bees.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 01:52 pm (UTC)Happy New Year!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 01:54 pm (UTC)