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Title details for In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado - Wait list

In the Dream House

A Memoir

by Carmen Maria Machado
Carmen Maria Machado
Audiobook
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 12 weeks
In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. And it's that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope-the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman-through which Machado holds the events up to the light and examines them from different angles. She looks back at her religious adolescence, unpacks the stereotype of lesbian relationships as safe and utopian, and widens the view with essayistic explorations of the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships. Machado's dire narrative is leavened with her characteristic wit, playfulness, and openness to inquiry. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction. The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    December 19, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781684572793
      • File size: 158140 KB
      • Duration: 05:29:27

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Carmen Maria Machado's memoir of psychological abuse by a former girlfriend dissects their relationship from many perspectives, each described within the framework of a highly original metaphor (all of which the author claims are not metaphors). As she opens the doors on her experience, Machado's voice is soft and steady, simultaneously vulnerable and assured. Acclaimed for her masterful short stories, Machado and her then-girlfriend, referred to throughout as "the Woman from the Dream House," met during the author's studies at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She breaks through the "archival silence" of women's accounts of abuse, particularly between queer women, by recording the insidious unraveling of her own relationship. Machado's sense-making framework alternates the use of fairy-tale storytelling, movies, and other elements with the heady emotional terrain of events from their first meeting onward. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 26, 2019
      In this haunting memoir, National Book Award–finalist Machado (Her Body and Other Parties) discusses the mental and physical abuse she was subjected to by her girlfriend. The book is divided into short, piercing chapters, in which Machado refers to the victimized version of herself as “you.” (“I thought you died, but writing this, I’m not sure you did.”) Machado discusses meeting the girlfriend (her first) in Iowa City, where Machado was getting her MFA. She masterfully, slowly introduces unease and dread as the relationship unfolds. The girlfriend turns threatening if Machado doesn’t immediately return her calls, starts pointless fights, and inflicts physical discomfort on Machado (squeezing her arm for no reason, for instance). The hostile environment turns utterly oppressive, yet Machado stays, becoming further disoriented by someone who inflicts harm one minute and declares her love the next. Machado interestingly weaves in cultural references (to movies like 1944’s Gaslight and 1984’s Carmen) as she considers portrayals of abuse. She points out that queer women endure abuse in their relationships just as heterosexual women do, and queer abusers shouldn’t be protected: “We deserve to have our wrongdoing represented.” The author eventually leaves her toxic relationship behind, but scars remain. Machado has written an affecting, chilling memoir about domestic abuse.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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