Her husband cannot leave it alone, figuratively or literally, and though we understand her position when she asks, “Am I not allowed this one thing?” by now we cannot leave it alone, either.
In this happy family, the ribbon is the one consistent source of tension. Eventually, their beloved son is drawn to the ribbon also, and she has to scare him to keep him from trying to pull at it. She only has two rules for him, and after they get married, there is only one rule: He cannot touch her ribbon. The narrator’s own ribbon is around her throat, and it is a source of enduring fascination for the boy who eventually becomes her husband. She could start with the “husband stitch” itself, a reference to men wanting doctors to sew an extra stitch or two in closing up their wives’ mid-childbirth episiotomy to make things “nice and tight” once again.įrom the narrator’s recurring suggestions for what to do “if you are reading this story aloud,” including, “force a listener to reveal a devastating secret, then open the nearest window to the street and scream it as loudly as you are able” to her description of her voice as “high-pitched, forgettable” and all other women’s voices in the story “interchangeable with my own” to the mentions of the ribbons - in different colors and placement - worn by other women: There is much to unpack.
A grad student could write her entire thesis on it, unpacking layer after layer and holding each up to the light to understand its composition. Included with the advance reading copy of Her Body and Other Parties was a bookmark - a short length of green satin ribbon, which matched the ribbon featured on the book’s cover, which, in turn, matches the ribbon that features prominently in the first story of Machado’s collection, “The Husband Stitch.” And what a story it is. Her fearlessness, combined with some spellbinding writing, delivers stories that are at once discomfiting and revelatory. Her work is brazenly unapologetic, or perhaps unapologetically brazen. Machado’s short stories have appeared in a host of big-name venues and garnered numerous awards, including a Pushcart Prize Special Mention, which is why folks have been awaiting this first collection.
Welcome to the world of Carmen Maria Machado. The book, your book, is longlisted for the National Book Award - before it’s even released. It’s a scenario aspiring authors can only dream about: Your first book is finally due for publication, the buzz is building, people in the know discuss it a bit breathlessly and say things like “hotly anticipated,” and then, the unimaginable happens.
0 kommentar(er)
