Select language, opens an overlay

Comment

Jan 01, 2018lizcobbe rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
This is an engaging, interesting, and problematic novel about body shaming and how women can choose to live in a world that constantly seeks to objectify and sexualize them - and when it can't, it dismisses them or becomes violent. It's especially interesting to read a novel with these themes, written not long before the #metoo movement. How quickly events change our perspective! Plum is a great narrator whose resolution feels rushed. The absence of any significant male characters is both refreshing and problematic; decent men do in fact exist in the world, even if they inadvertently profit from systematic sexism. And when violent men who have abused women are violently punished, the violence itself seems incompletely considered. And, is it insightful to condemn all women as superficial and insensitive who choose to enjoy their own physical beauty, even if that beauty is mainstream? But, the story is worthwhile: a women who travels through many relationships with her body and her obesity, against a backdrop of a headline-grabbing series of violent (terrorist?) actions taken by a small group of women who have been dealt enough injustice.