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f18's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
In the dark of night a person known as A.D. enters a quiet graveyard and commits a violent suicide. Innumerable bits of souls are drawn towards the vacant body as a beautiful woman comes to revive it. This One now exists in plurality but without memory of their past life.
If you are reading this book and your copy does not include the two incredible illustrations by Romaine Brookes, I would advise seeking them out.
Just a note: the synopsis of the book that I saw said that the main character is intersex. Unless I missed something this is never mentioned or alluded to in the book. All we know is that they have top surgery scars.
In turns dreamlike and frenetic, this was both a departure and yet in other ways almost too similar to the previous Nathalie Clifford Barney book I read, Women Lovers, or, The Third Woman. Written in the first person plural, this small novel uses a fantastical premise (never explained, never questioned) to tackle topics like sexual vs spiritual sapphic desire, struggling with gender identity, and discomfort with societal expectations of what a relationship should look like. Familiar concepts from her chapter on La Troisième are interwoven into the narrative and it is marked by the same style of ornate descriptions and sparse action, heavily internal and interspersed with letters and poetry, but much less salacious.
I'm not sure how much someone who identifies plurally or has been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder would see themselves in this text. I don't have enough experience to comment. From the author's note:
If you are reading this book and your copy does not include the two incredible illustrations by Romaine Brookes, I would advise seeking them out.
Just a note: the synopsis of the book that I saw said that the main character is intersex. Unless I missed something this is never mentioned or alluded to in the book. All we know is that they have top surgery scars.
In turns dreamlike and frenetic, this was both a departure and yet in other ways almost too similar to the previous Nathalie Clifford Barney book I read, Women Lovers, or, The Third Woman. Written in the first person plural, this small novel uses a fantastical premise (never explained, never questioned) to tackle topics like sexual vs spiritual sapphic desire, struggling with gender identity, and discomfort with societal expectations of what a relationship should look like. Familiar concepts from her chapter on La Troisième are interwoven into the narrative and it is marked by the same style of ornate descriptions and sparse action, heavily internal and interspersed with letters and poetry, but much less salacious.
I'm not sure how much someone who identifies plurally or has been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder would see themselves in this text. I don't have enough experience to comment. From the author's note:
For years I have been haunted by the idea that I should orchestrate those inner voices which sometimes speak to us in unison, and so compose a novel, not so much with the people about us, as with those within ourselves, for have we not several selves and cannot a story arise from their conflicts and harmonies?
While a truly interesting piece of literature, I ultimately hated the resolution of the last chapter. To me it read as a regression, as if the author was saying A.D. needed to die in order to be whole.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide, Sexual content, Death, and Sexual assault
Minor: Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, and Infidelity
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