Good Girls Gone Mad (in Fiction)
The power of fictional female fury. WSIR #33
Antiheroes. For-basically-ever, we couldn't read a book or watch a TV show without stumbling across a compelling, layered, dangerous male antihero. But until fairly recently, it seems like we’ve had a real dearth of female antiheroes (with all due respect to Lady MacBeth, who indeed demands it.)
In the last decade or so, we’ve had a groundswell of interesting angry women in fiction, which for me has made for some fascinating, thought-provoking reading. Let’s call it “The Golden Age of Gone Girl” where traditional or superficial ‘good girls’ finally express their anger, their dark sides. (If you haven’t read Gone Girl, make that a beach mystery read this summer. You’re welcome!)
And it’s not *just* the dangerous woman allure, the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo of it all, that makes this week’s fiction worthwhile to me. (Though wait - if you haven’t read the Dragon Tattoo books either, go on and check them out too. You. are. WELCOME!) First of all, this week’s books are all excellent reads full stop, for men and women. I promise you don’t have to be the slightest bit “Feminist AF” to enjoy them, though they might change your perspective in the end, as all good writing should.
What they really have in common for me is a fascinating, fiercely palpable, steely ribbon of unapologetic anger in its female characters and narrators that you don’t see all the time. Their characters are in a subdued scream at their circumstances, at the lives they’ve created, at the choices they perceive having. That doesn’t make these characters necessarily likable, or forgivable - in fact often much the opposite - but it does make them interesting and memorable. And the way these characters’ truths emerge in each of these works is so compelling. I hope you’ll enjoy these books, or at least sit with their emotions for a long time, as I have.
Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, which begin with My Brilliant Friend, were everywhere for a few years and if you thought they were just pop chick-lit fiction, you might want to reconsider! Partially because they’re just good chewy reading - literary enough to justify plowing through hundreds of pages at a time, with plenty of sweeping family drama and love and betrayal to power several soap operas.
But I also recall reading these books and having to set the book down several times with a blinking “… whew” - because sweet Georgia Brown, these characters’ anger sizzles off the page in unsparing forcefulness. The trilogy, set in 1950s Naples, follows two girls with great potential from childhood into late middle age. Centering two girls against the backdrop of a violent, masculine culture creates contrast enough, and then add in the constant interplay between friends Lila and Lenu, each at times brilliant or acquiescent, devoted or destructive and deeply manipulative of each other and the world around them - well, this trilogy is really something different.
Fates and Furies is a literary fiction take on the marriage of a brilliant man and his “behind every great man is a great woman” wife. It’s told in two parts: “Fates,” the perspective of Lotto, the celebrated playwright husband; and “Furies,” the perspective of Mathilde, his wife. Not only does the author play with language and structure in a fascinatingly omniscient way (I mean, it doesn’t reference Greek mythology for nothin’), but it’s also a much darker and more Gothic twist on the “two sides of a marriage” story you can imagine in every therapist’s office. I shivered as I read Mathilde’s side. Really excellent!
Fleishman is in Trouble is the story of Toby Fleishman, a well-off physician in New York, whose wife separates from him and then disappears, leaving him with his two children, trying to determine what happened to his ex, and to his marriage.
I know, it seems odd to feature the story of a middle-aged man in this theme of female fury, but that’s one of the reasons why I loved this novel. It starts as one thing - the tale of divorce, of marriage, of modern middle-aged love - but even from the start, you’ll notice that nothing is quite what it seems to be. It’s hilarious, deeply smart, compulsively readable, and a clever take on how women’s stories and men’s stories intertwine. And in the end, there’s a little more compassion and grace to go around for everyone, so what more can you want?
And finally, one pro-tip from your friend Kerry - if you’re into this theme, absolutely do not waste your time reading the “Killing Eve” books. But if you can stomach violence, absolutely do watch the BBC series. This may be the first time I can recommend skipping the book!
And if you’re still reading this …
It’s a long weekend here in the U.S. and if you were just looking for some escapist reading suggestions, for crying out loud, I got you: check out some vacation reads, some escapist reads, or my go-to “trashy books for smart people” writer, Pat Conroy. And please come back next week for a few more fun book suggestions!
And in honor of American Independence Day today, please check your voter registration (go here for my US people.) When I’m not nose-deep in a book, I’m hectoring people to exercise their sacred right to vote. Yes, it IS exhausting living with me, why do you ask?
As always, all the links in this email go to Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores, a fine and noble pursuit. All my past 33 weeks of recommendations can be found at my Bookshop.org page here.