Maybe You Should Read Godshot: WSIR #10
But maybe not?
Is this a recommendation for the novel Godshot? I’m honestly not sure. So I’ll lay out the argument, and then you decide.
Power summary: A teenage girl in a drought-stricken California town that has fallen under the spell of a charismatic preacher who promises that only he can end the drought and save their souls. She has to decide whether to follow or reject the preacher, and deal with the consequences. (TW: sexual assault)
Pro:
It is a fascinating exploration of women. Mothers. Grandmothers. Teenage girls. Wives. Madonnas and actual whores. And, most incisively, what women will do to themselves and others for the protection and approval of men, without ever having to be explicitly told or forced. Although a man (the preacher) is the galvanizing force of many plot points, the women are the actual heroes, villains, and main characters. Ironically, the men orbit around in secondary, somewhat inconsequential roles, and that tension is the absolute power of this novel.
Con:
This oddly wasn't really about being religiously “godshot” or the prison of belief, despite sort of setting up the preacher as this main character and the actual title. Is that the point? Maybe. Or is it, as I also suspect, an indication that this book and its author didn’t completely know what it was about? There’s also this whole environmental throughline that never really resolved but also was too important to ignore. Honestly, I still want to read the culty book I thought it was.
Pro:
At the start, it traffics in every cliche about teens and rural towns and religious folks. But after about the first third, it swerves in more interesting and unexpected ways that make those cliches seem less about the author’s lack of imagination and perhaps more of a point about how easily we can make assumptions about these groups.
Con:
Who needs a book that starts slow/obvious? Also I never need to read another description of a girl who bites her raggedy cuticles and wears ill-fitting hand-me-down clothes. There are other signifiers for teen awkwardness, writers. Do better.
Pro:
It’s powerful and it stuck with me. I found myself wanting to talk to people about it and puzzle through the contradictions and the heart of it all.
Con:
It’s depressing. Between the environmental catastrophe, sexual violations, and the general sticky, dangerous airlessness of the characters’ lives, it weighed heavily on my heart.
Pro:
Isn’t this the PRETTIEST cover?
Over to you, reader. What’s the verdict - read or avoid? Let me know in a comment!
A Year of Shakespeare: The Reading Challenge
2021 Week 3: The Merry Wives of Windsor … theoretically.
I realized I’ve been attacking this pursuit in an “accomplishment” kind of way, to get it over with, in the way people say they want to “do Rome” in a day. I’m not sure that’s the right approach, and I’m not sure Shakespeare is the kind of thing that one (or at least I) can really digest without supplementary dictionaries or guides or discussion.
SO. I’m trying to read more slowly and explore secondary texts to see if I get more out of it.
Yes, that’s a feeble explanation/excuse for my slow progress.
