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bitni_mitni's review
5.0
To me, this chapbook is a meditation on masculinity and toxic masculinity and its influence on the culture and experience of the American Midwest. I wondered for a while where the women were, as Katie Schmid painted pictures of boys and men and fathers, and then it became clear: women are the eyes, the observers. This is the Midwest as seen by a woman, which is dominated by the male experience of the space.
The girls are waiting for and wondering about their fathers: “The daughters of the world go to sleep in their fathers’ work suits…” (“warp”)
The women watch the strange, dangerous, unhealthy rituals of the boys: “They feed him ants…This Boy is hugged until he glows with health. He is now their King.” (“The Boys of the Midwest 4”)
The women hear the boys’ catcalls and they know precisely what they mean: “Boys…yell lewd words to anyone who looks like she might be able to resist them.” (“Some brief information about the Spartans”)
The women have spent time pondering about the things that haunt men and boys because it will have a direct impact on their own life: “A boy thinks of all that he will kill. All that will try to kill him.” (“Some brief information about the Spartans”)
The women are pillars of comfort and physical affection for men: “The Boys of the Midwest hold my hands in theirs until they ache.” (“The Boys of the Midwest 5”)
At times, the woman surfaces and has a genderless moment, like in “4th of July.” But then we return to reality in nowhere, in which “a man rode up on a bike and looked me up and down.” (“Nowhere”)
But the reality of the Midwest is that we are beholden to nature. When the wind gets in the house, there is not much to be done. You can try to leave, but where is there to go? Is nowhere somewhere else, or are you already there?
I love Katie’s writing and her ability to surprise you with every sentence. She presents her descriptions of the world so straightforwardly, and you realize “yes, this is the world I’ve known, I’ve just never thought of it that way.”
The girls are waiting for and wondering about their fathers: “The daughters of the world go to sleep in their fathers’ work suits…” (“warp”)
The women watch the strange, dangerous, unhealthy rituals of the boys: “They feed him ants…This Boy is hugged until he glows with health. He is now their King.” (“The Boys of the Midwest 4”)
The women hear the boys’ catcalls and they know precisely what they mean: “Boys…yell lewd words to anyone who looks like she might be able to resist them.” (“Some brief information about the Spartans”)
The women have spent time pondering about the things that haunt men and boys because it will have a direct impact on their own life: “A boy thinks of all that he will kill. All that will try to kill him.” (“Some brief information about the Spartans”)
The women are pillars of comfort and physical affection for men: “The Boys of the Midwest hold my hands in theirs until they ache.” (“The Boys of the Midwest 5”)
At times, the woman surfaces and has a genderless moment, like in “4th of July.” But then we return to reality in nowhere, in which “a man rode up on a bike and looked me up and down.” (“Nowhere”)
But the reality of the Midwest is that we are beholden to nature. When the wind gets in the house, there is not much to be done. You can try to leave, but where is there to go? Is nowhere somewhere else, or are you already there?
I love Katie’s writing and her ability to surprise you with every sentence. She presents her descriptions of the world so straightforwardly, and you realize “yes, this is the world I’ve known, I’ve just never thought of it that way.”
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