women's wrongs
Menu 06.25
One of my favorite things I saw on Substack this week was
’s talk with , encouraging 1,000 words of summer of writers to stick with their projects for the long haul by cracking themselves up with their own audacity. As a reader, I love to be shocked by what and who a writer has dared to imagine, so this sounds like great advice to me.I’m in the mood to escape into some audacious female behavior this month. Here are five books on my radar with messy female protagonists.
Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
Linda’s leading a normal life, barely making it as a comment moderator for a video-sharing platform. She lives in a windowless garage, but allows herself the monthly indulgence of a roundtrip regional flight from SFO. She doesn’t care where she’s going as long as it’s on a handsome plane. She has a secret obsession with aircraft– and yes, it’s sexual. The absurd premise makes me smile and shake my head everytime I think about it. If anyone can pull it off, it’s Kate Folk.
The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden
It’s summer 1961 and Isabel’s brother has dropped his girlfriend Eva off at her house in the Dutch countryside. Eva’s the antithesis of Isabel, who has constructed for herself a domestic environment of absolute exquisite order, every detail carefully chosen, a place for everything and everything in its place. There’s a twist– these people and the house they’re in are not what they seem. I don’t know more and please don’t tell me. I have been trying not to stumble into any spoilers for The Safekeep, winner of the National Jewish Book Award and shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, because the description made me think this is exactly the kind I need to buy in paperback and take with me on a vacation where I will proceed to ignore everyone and everything around me until I finish it.
Big Swiss by Jennifer Beagin
Greta’s in her early 30s 45 (and a proud liar) and has recently left a steady relationship with a man to move to an ancient farmhouse in Hudson, NY to live with her friend Sabine and a hive of bees. She finds work as a transcriptionist for the town’s main sex therapist, who calls himself Om. In her spare time, she writes letters to her dead mother and tries to repress her own suicidal impulses. She becomes fascinated by the voice and story of one of Om’s repressed married clients, initials FEW, and begins to think of her as “Big Swiss.” One day, Greta hears that voice in public and the two quickly become enmeshed. But Greta has signed an NDA and can’t/won’t tell Big Swiss that she has eavesdropped on her therapy sessions. Outlandish, right?
This moved up on my TBR when
described it as “a more enjoyable (for me) version of All Fours.” Since I read it last June, Miranda July’s book has held its spot as queen of the hill of novels based on women behaving so wrong it feels right. Maybe it’s time to challenge that perch?
Bunny by Mona Awad
Samantha Heather Mackey’s an MFA student doesn’t fit in with her cohort of saccharine, sinister rich girls who call each other “Bunny” and move as a unit. But one day she accepts an invitation to their “Smut Salon,” leaving her only friend Ava behind. Bunny has been compared to every funny and horrific tale of friendship gone wrong— from Clueless, Heathers, and Mean Girls to The Secret History and Eileen. I skipped this one when it came out in 2019 because the hype was too much. My friend
gave me her copy a few months ago with the warning that she wasn’t sure what to think. With Awad’s prequel/sequel launching in September, the time to figure that out for myself is now or never.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Did anyone else read this book as a teenager, skimming over all the parts that didn’t have to do with Anna and Vronsky’s storyline? Now I’m trying to give this classic its due. Last month I listened during my long walks to this narration by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who I adore, and I’m finding the parts about agriculture and economics much more interesting.
Since it has gotten hot here, I’m walking a lot less and my progress has slowed. To finish, I am going to read a hard copy in tandem. Audible is cagey about which translation Gyllenhaal is reading from, but the internet tells me it’s one by Constance Garnett. The only translation of hers I found was an abridged illustrated version I didn’t like the looks of, so I’ve purchased this one translated by Rosamund Bartlett instead. Did I make the right choice? If you have an informed opinion about the differences in translations and which is best, I would love to hear about it in the comments.
See also…
Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, author of The Missing Morningstar, has been named one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 under 35. I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, featured on the blog last year. Nice choice
, , , . Check her out!
Naomi Kanakia has created theSamuel Richardson Prize for Self-Published Literary Novel (or Story Collection)and I will be one of the judges. Submit your most audacious work to Naomi by July 31.
This is the image in my head as I’ve watched the drama between Musk and ’rump play itself out this week. So Messy!
Cheers,
Henry Eliot is using Rosamund Bartlett's translation of Anna Karenina for his group read-along, but he also recommended the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (Penguin, 2000), the Kyril Zinovieff and Jenny Hughes (Alma Books, 2008) or the Marian Schwartz (Yale University Press, 2015).