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A review by justabean_reads
Enter the Body by Joy McCullough
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
So I hear that sometimes Shakespeare was problematic in his treatment of female characters? In the trap room under the stage, all of Shakespeare's female characters hang out after they get killed off, and before they go back on stage for the next performance. The novel is a conversation between Juliet, Ophelia and Cordelia, with Lavinia hanging out but unable to talk due to the tongue thing (more on that in a moment).
They tell each other how their stories went, compare them, and then reimagine the endings, usually by adding a sympathetic/protector female character. The women's narratives are in poetry, of varying quality, with script discussions when they're talking to each other. The dialogue in those sections is painfully contemporary. I know that you're in a bind with modernising Shakespeare because he himself translated everything to Modern English, but he was also famous for giving each character a style of speech and point of view that worked with where they came from. All of these women sounded like they'd gotten a 21st-century liberal arts education in America.
There's some interesting points, especially around what each of them sees a happy ending looking like, but overall it just felt really heavy handed. The author was basically venting, and didn't let anything be implied that couldn't be stated outright, so I ended up feeling talked down to. For example, each of the three women used a different style of poetry, and they had to have a whole conversation about why Cordelia was using iambic pentameter, rather than just letting the reader notice that.
I didn't like that Lavinia couldn't talk. When Juliet appears, she pulls the dagger out of her chest, and it dematerialises, so I don't see why Lavinia couldn't have gotten her tongue and hands back. I mean, I see why: she was representing the women who suffered from sexual violence and then were silenced, the worst possible end in all of Shakespeare, a fate so bad it's literally unspeakable, and a nod to all the missing an murdered women. However, why not give her a voice now? It felt, in the end, like just another layer of silencing her because the author didn't want to deal with that plot head on.
Interesting idea, all in all I'd rather reread the script for Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Anne-Marie MacDonald.
They tell each other how their stories went, compare them, and then reimagine the endings, usually by adding a sympathetic/protector female character. The women's narratives are in poetry, of varying quality, with script discussions when they're talking to each other. The dialogue in those sections is painfully contemporary. I know that you're in a bind with modernising Shakespeare because he himself translated everything to Modern English, but he was also famous for giving each character a style of speech and point of view that worked with where they came from. All of these women sounded like they'd gotten a 21st-century liberal arts education in America.
There's some interesting points, especially around what each of them sees a happy ending looking like, but overall it just felt really heavy handed. The author was basically venting, and didn't let anything be implied that couldn't be stated outright, so I ended up feeling talked down to. For example, each of the three women used a different style of poetry, and they had to have a whole conversation about why Cordelia was using iambic pentameter, rather than just letting the reader notice that.
I didn't like that Lavinia couldn't talk. When Juliet appears, she pulls the dagger out of her chest, and it dematerialises, so I don't see why Lavinia couldn't have gotten her tongue and hands back. I mean, I see why: she was representing the women who suffered from sexual violence and then were silenced, the worst possible end in all of Shakespeare, a fate so bad it's literally unspeakable, and a nod to all the missing an murdered women. However, why not give her a voice now? It felt, in the end, like just another layer of silencing her because the author didn't want to deal with that plot head on.
Interesting idea, all in all I'd rather reread the script for Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Anne-Marie MacDonald.