Uhhhhh American Eve was so much better. This one focuses more on Harry Thaw and I guess tries to paint his insanity as more sympathetic.
But it compleUhhhhh American Eve was so much better. This one focuses more on Harry Thaw and I guess tries to paint his insanity as more sympathetic.
But it completely removes the incidents of abuse in Austria at the hands of Thaw?
I’ll read anything about Evelyn Nesbit, but this author completely lost me when he questions the rape accusation in the afterword. Even if Nesbit lied or exaggerated the violence of the accusations against White 1. he definitely committed statutory rape 2. those “exaggerations� were coming in response to the violence that Thaw subjected her to!
Anyway, Nesbit was a queen and I love my resilient Capricorn mom. ...more
This book was very hard to read! I'm not sure if I've ever read a book that made me sick to my stomach as much.
That would be my only qualifier to recThis book was very hard to read! I'm not sure if I've ever read a book that made me sick to my stomach as much.
That would be my only qualifier to recommending it--I just know it is going to be stuck in my head and heart for awhile in an all-consuming way that might sneak up on me in unexpected moments.
A fair warning: obviously the stuff about Rosemary's disability is upsetting and infuriating, but Rose Kennedy had obsession with her children's health that included weight, so a lot of the correspondence between children and parents talks about Rosemary trying to lose weight in order to please her father and mother and her parents often also instruct caretakers to encourage Rosemary to diet. It was secondarily upsetting to the handling of her disability, but I wasn't prepared for it at all, so I figured I would include a trigger warning here.
Larson does a good job of re centering Rosemary to the Kennedy family. That this figure, who for so long was a footnote and then cast as this tragedy looming over the family, was actually at the center of the morality, faith and public dedication that the family strove toward. The differing successes of the family achieving those goals isn't really the concern of Larson. Instead, she really does focus on Rosemary and the ripples of goodness she sent out into the world, even after so much of her life's potential was taken away from her by her father's unilateral medical decisions on her behalf. ...more
For all my feminism and constant work to undo internalized misogyny, I still struggle with unlikable women. Perhaps more than anything, I want to be lFor all my feminism and constant work to undo internalized misogyny, I still struggle with unlikable women. Perhaps more than anything, I want to be likable. And I love to dole out compliments to my female friends that are overblown, commenting on their kindness and sweetness.
Eve Babitz is not likable, but she is a genius. Practicing sitting with her is a helpful, if uncomfortable exercise.
Babitz is like Lana del Rey (also a genius), but it isn’t a pastiche. There is no wink or nod. This is just Babitz’s life.
Anolik, especially by also including Eve’s sister’s story, emphasizes that feminine genius often is undocumentable. Its products are sometimes by products and only have One Author and that Author is male. Eve, the writer is one thing. But Eve, the person who gained access to all that she wrote about is another. One lends itself to assessment on established terms, but the other is more interesting. Just harder to reckon with as genius.
But hanger-ons, groupies, muses must have something (genius, or perhaps a different word) and Anolik starts to build a vocabulary of how do we revere them. This is bolstered in this book by Anolik giving over to her affection and relationship with Babitz. Rather than implicating fictive distance, Anolik embraces the biographical collapse between subject, object and author and lets the cracks show so much that they cease to be cracks.
I still struggle for language to describe sitting with Babitz. But I think of all the behavior I forgive in male geniuses I love, and I wonder what equivalence I should extend to her. Forgiveness isn’t quite the right word because on what authority do I forgive Babitz for her behavior that makes me uneasy? I think maybe the best thing I can give her is my attention.
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