Jessica
A re-retelling. A new thing I am trying. Reading two retelling in close proximity. Paired this with the excellent 'No Friend to this House'. They are both outstanding. They are both very modern and very feminist. I think this one maybe packs more of a punch. Medea... How do you humanize one of the most reviled characters in literature -- a woman who killed her children...?? Well Haynes and Hewitt both cracked it as far as I am concerned.
Devoured it. I love a good retelling and this one was perfection. I would contrast it with Demon Copperhead where the retelling seemed to drive the beats and the plots, whereas Home Fire instead -- while equally clear -- instead shows you the timelessness of some stories. Just amazing. This is a 4.4 read for me. P for persistence likely to revise this one up to 5 stars by the end of the year.
My comments from 50% through stand: No Friend to This House is written in the style of A Thousand Ships -- many many many side stories of all the women around Jason -- when I was expecting it to be more focused on Medea. I think I would have enjoyed it much more if I knew that going in because 1000 Ships was brilliant. There is an author's note at the end that explains how Natalie thinks about what she wrote. She suggests you read it after. I would suggest you read it before.
These short stories were kind of all over the place. Literally and figuratively. Some of them were quite good. Some were just unsettling. All were a little off-kilter. Keegan is probably on an I-will-read-anything-of-hers list for me, but had this been my first foray into her work, I might not have read more.
Maybe it is reading it in proximity to so much Morrison, but while there were flashes of beauty and there is no question about the brilliance, this was a more difficult read for me. The highly phonetic Black vernacular was uncomfortable to read. I have no doubt is entirely historical, but it still was difficult. And the story itself also was difficult. Again looking at it through such a thoroughly modern lens, but it is hard to be okay with spousal abuse. I struggled with it. Glad I have read it, but I just really have a lot of ambivalence around it. Will need to read -- and learn -- more.
May actually be a 5 star. Need to let it settle a bit. Let's try the system:
Pleasure? 4 Purpose? 5 Plot? 4 Prose? 5 Personal? 4
Avg → ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The 6th P (persistence) is what is going to push this one over the edge, but obviously need some time to pass on that one.
Def would recommend this to the right audience. It has a lot of very very explicit lesbian sex in it. A lot. If that is not your jam, maybe pass on this book or be prepared to skim the middle third.
Not sure I found the ending very satisfying. It was exactly where you would expect it to go, but somehow it just did not quite fit the way I wanted it to.
I can 1,000,000% see this as an understated indie art-house film.
