Her fan and other parties

 

My beloved English edition.

Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado.

It took me a long time to sit down and write about this book, I have been a giggling fangirl since I read it, but couldn’t get the focus to write in an adultlike manner, with like… coherent words. Let´s blame the book and say it did something to me, maybe just released a loose screw in my head, but nah… it did something all right: it left a profound mark in me.

Random mumbling.

So, what is this sorcery?! A mystery experimental drug embed in the paper. (Yeah, right...) The themes Machado deftly manages: womanhood, identity, connection, companionship, expectations, body-image, realization. I don’t precisely include queerness, in a way I should, but for some reason it all felt so seemingly mundane, just a part of the character´s humanity. Smooth move.

Or maybe it was the urgent voice you feel vibrating through the book, the powerful endings. Oh, my! Those were something else, not in the slick story-twist way, but the strong final standing. A caress in the cheek. A slap in the face. Both.

One may notice that I say “the book” and not “the stories”, it is one of those peculiar cases that the stories flow with unity. Sure, you like some stories more than others, but it is like being held by the hand in the beginning and going through without letting go. Maybe I am fangirling again, I can’t seem to get outside the experience I had when reading. I can list all the things I loved and found worthy and still I will be unable to express what a journey it was. Sure, not everybody will feel the same, each experience is different and that´s fascinating on itself. I just feel grateful with Machado for giving me such an awesome ride.

And then...

I have to say though, I don’t know if I will be able to forgive turning my favorite lesbian-partner joke into a horror story. Who am I fooling, I love her.