Pure
Fiel a Verdad
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2001
- Posts
- 15,135
review of wetlands, by charlotte roche.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090228.BKWETLANDS28/TPStory/?query=wetlands
[beginning of review]
WETLANDS
By Charlotte Roche
HarperCollins, 229 pages, $22.99
Helen, 18, is about to go under anesthesia for repair of a cut she got shaving her bum. Afraid of dying, she makes a pact with the God she does not believe in: If He allows her to survive the bum operation, she will give up forever the game she and her friend play of Get drunk, snatch the glasses off someone's face and stomp on them, then run. This isn't a very big sacrifice, as there are three things that bother her already about the game: 1. An occasional victim, despite being blinded and shocked, will pursue - and possibly catch and beat - his tormentors; 2. The adrenalin dissipates the booze buzz, and the pair of hoodlumettes have to spend more money on alcohol to re-get drunk; 3. Sometimes, later, she'll remember the look of the stranger's naked, glasses-less face.
Our Helen does survive anesthesia, and the entire 229 pages of Wetlands take place in her three-day recovery in the proctology ward, where she passes the time by remembering petty crimes and lewd sex acts (which seem to be the only two activities she engages in, besides growing and then molesting her avocado "family") and plotting to reunite her divorced parents.
The hospital environment is a brilliant vehicle for debut novelist Charlotte Roche to show what it's like to be young and female and damaged, to be both pitiless and powerless and on display.
===============
panel discussion of wetlands, with some other books mentioned.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090227.wbkwetlands28/BNStory/globebooks/home
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090228.BKWETLANDS28/TPStory/?query=wetlands
[beginning of review]
WETLANDS
By Charlotte Roche
HarperCollins, 229 pages, $22.99
Helen, 18, is about to go under anesthesia for repair of a cut she got shaving her bum. Afraid of dying, she makes a pact with the God she does not believe in: If He allows her to survive the bum operation, she will give up forever the game she and her friend play of Get drunk, snatch the glasses off someone's face and stomp on them, then run. This isn't a very big sacrifice, as there are three things that bother her already about the game: 1. An occasional victim, despite being blinded and shocked, will pursue - and possibly catch and beat - his tormentors; 2. The adrenalin dissipates the booze buzz, and the pair of hoodlumettes have to spend more money on alcohol to re-get drunk; 3. Sometimes, later, she'll remember the look of the stranger's naked, glasses-less face.
Our Helen does survive anesthesia, and the entire 229 pages of Wetlands take place in her three-day recovery in the proctology ward, where she passes the time by remembering petty crimes and lewd sex acts (which seem to be the only two activities she engages in, besides growing and then molesting her avocado "family") and plotting to reunite her divorced parents.
The hospital environment is a brilliant vehicle for debut novelist Charlotte Roche to show what it's like to be young and female and damaged, to be both pitiless and powerless and on display.
===============
panel discussion of wetlands, with some other books mentioned.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090227.wbkwetlands28/BNStory/globebooks/home
