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cynthiak's review against another edition
3.0
Glauque, glauque, glauque. Le premier roman de Laura Kasischke, bien qu'on y retrouve les thèmes récurrents de ses romans, ne préfigure pas le reste de son œuvre.
huncamuncamouse's review
4.0
4.5 stars
Laura Kasischke is the master of writing about truly horrible, violent situations in absolutely beautiful prose. She is a master of vivid description and always picks the perfect, unexpected detail to include. This is one of the best novels I've read by her, but it isn't for the faint of heart. The book is rife with explicit descriptions of violence against women. A mousy desk clerk at a local hotel, Leila begins prostituting herself for reasons that are at first unclear. Initially, it seems like a sudden choice, but as her backstory and long history of trauma is slowly disclosed, what seemed like a surprising "slide" into sex work is actually revealed to be an almost predetermined fate.
This book will probably frustrate people. Leila is a pretty passive narrator--which makes sense as she frequently speaks about leaving her own body, an instantly recognizable trauma response. The women in Suspicious River are wary of her because of her troubled childhood and her rumored "reputation." The men feel entitled to her body and are disgusted because they're drawn to her. Anyone who seems like they'll offer a helping hand winds up exploiting her, which is a little unbelievable, I suppose.
I will say that the novel's plot plays into a lot of different stereotypes about sex workers, but given that the book was published in 1996, I'm not going to dwell on that too much. This book doesn't seem to be interested in making a larger commentary on the morality about sex work. Instead, it's more concerned with how trauma manifests--how the past haunts us and how it can trick us into thinking we have control over our choices when we're really choosing what hurts us over and over again. It's a pretty bleak sentiment, but it's gorgeously written. And that's why I love Laura Kasischke's writing so much.
Laura Kasischke is the master of writing about truly horrible, violent situations in absolutely beautiful prose. She is a master of vivid description and always picks the perfect, unexpected detail to include. This is one of the best novels I've read by her, but it isn't for the faint of heart. The book is rife with explicit descriptions of violence against women. A mousy desk clerk at a local hotel, Leila begins prostituting herself for reasons that are at first unclear. Initially, it seems like a sudden choice, but as her backstory and long history of trauma is slowly disclosed, what seemed like a surprising "slide" into sex work is actually revealed to be an almost predetermined fate.
This book will probably frustrate people. Leila is a pretty passive narrator--which makes sense as she frequently speaks about leaving her own body, an instantly recognizable trauma response. The women in Suspicious River are wary of her because of her troubled childhood and her rumored "reputation." The men feel entitled to her body and are disgusted because they're drawn to her. Anyone who seems like they'll offer a helping hand winds up exploiting her, which is a little unbelievable, I suppose.
I will say that the novel's plot plays into a lot of different stereotypes about sex workers, but given that the book was published in 1996, I'm not going to dwell on that too much. This book doesn't seem to be interested in making a larger commentary on the morality about sex work. Instead, it's more concerned with how trauma manifests--how the past haunts us and how it can trick us into thinking we have control over our choices when we're really choosing what hurts us over and over again. It's a pretty bleak sentiment, but it's gorgeously written. And that's why I love Laura Kasischke's writing so much.
dissendiumnox's review against another edition
Laura Kasischke's writing is superb but, honestly, I'm really not in the mood to read an entire book about a 24 yo girl prostituting herself and getting abused for almost 400 pages.That's not for me, I guess.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Violence, and Sexual violence
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