Boy Parts ( & Penance) by Eliza Clark

[holyzombiejesus]

Just finished BP. Feel quite queasy but really enjoyed the writing. Don't really have a lot to say but didn't want to just add another entry to the What Are You Reading? threads? Got her latest (Penance) lined up but that sounds a bit grim too ("Not every reader will make it through the opening scene, which describes Joan's horrific death after the other girls douse her in petrol and set her on fire.") so may read a palate cleanser first.

[thugler]

Also just finished BP.

Really enjoyed it, felt like it maybe was a little too derivative of it's influences in the last section, but the characters felt very accurate. Very current and well researched, and absolutely breezed through it in a couple of days. Wouldn't be surprised if there is a film version in the pipeline, something in the vein of Morvern Callar.

Not got around to penance yet.

Spoiler alert

The ending strayed a bit too close to american psycho

[close]

[holyzombiejesus]

I finished Penance last night. Not really sure what to make of it. It's well written although really slumps in the middle. It's also pretty fucking horrible. It kind of reminds me of aMatt Wesolowski's Six Stories books and I think that author helped Clark with her debut. Part of me was questioning the point of the book - a fictional 'true crime' book where the first chapter spells out what happened - and although I think it comes together in the end, I'm not sure if I particularly liked it. Really interetsed in what others think.

[holyzombiejesus]

Also, check out this fucking wank from The Guardian.

You've probably come across this woman: she is unfulfilled in her career, has been abandoned by at least one man, she is aimless and lamenting the obstacles in her life (of which, in reality, there don't appear to be many). She is not just miserable, she's a mess; self-absorbed and full of self-loathing.

If you've read a book by a woman, about a woman, that has been published in the last five years, then it's overwhelmingly likely that this woman was the protagonist. The narrative likely circled around this character's sadness, her passive struggle to overcome it, and little else. Typically, such stories have notes of darkness but will rarely deliver the actual thing. Usually the main character (like the author) will be middle-class, if not incredibly wealthy. Almost always she will be white. The book's cover will probably feature a devastated-looking woman with her hair covering her face or her head cradled in her hands.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/08/a-smorgasbord-of-unlikability-the-authors-helping-sad-girl-lit-grow-up

[mikeyg27]

Also just finished BP.

Really enjoyed it, felt like it maybe was a little too derivative of it's influences in the last section, but the characters felt very accurate. Very current and well researched, and absolutely breezed through it in a couple of days. Wouldn't be surprised if there is a film version in the pipeline, something in the vein of Morvern Callar.

Not got around to penance yet.

Spoiler alert

The ending strayed a bit too close to american psycho

[close]

Not a film, but Boy Parts is being turned into a one woman show at the Soho Theatre next month.

Re: the spoilered bit - I definitely thought that the author of that came across as a big influence. I loved Boy Parts, one of my favourite books of the last few years. I hadn't even realized Clark had a new book out until I saw it in the window of my local bookshop. It'll cut the queue on the To Read pile.

[thugler]

I finished Penance last night. Not really sure what to make of it. It's well written although really slumps in the middle. It's also pretty fucking horrible. It kind of reminds me of aMatt Wesolowski's Six Stories books and I think that author helped Clark with her debut. Part of me was questioning the point of the book - a fictional 'true crime' book where the first chapter spells out what happened - and although I think it comes together in the end, I'm not sure if I particularly liked it. Really interetsed in what others think.

Finished this also now.

Had a similar reaction. I admire the attempt to do something a bit more complex but agree it did drag a bit in the middle section.

Spoiler alert

Agreed on the ending, which makes you recontextualise some of the earlier stuff, despite being told the narrator was unreliable from the beginning. However what exactly was missing/misleading was a bit ambiguous. I wasn't quite sure what to take from it overall.

[close]

[holyzombiejesus]

Re: the spoilered bit - I definitely thought that the author of that came across as a big influence.

She was recently invited to interview Bret Easton Ellis on stage, only for Ellis to veto the choice; too young, apparently.

[Icehaven]

Read Penance a few weeks ago after reading a review which piqued my interest, and while it drew me in enough to finish it in one sitting overall I found it a bit thin. I liked the idea of creating a piece of fictional true crime to explore the actual true crime phenomenon, but in the end this didn't really seem to have anything much to say about it other than the ambiguity of how true any of it really is and the tendency towards ugly prurience and flippancy about victims, neither of which are particularly new or insightful observations.

Finished this also now.

Spoiler alert

Agreed on the ending, which makes you recontextualise some of the earlier stuff, despite being told the narrator was unreliable from the beginning. However what exactly was missing/misleading was a bit ambiguous. I wasn't quite sure what to take from it overall.

[close]

Same, definitely about there being something missing, to the point where I thought had I missed something between the lines and a more careful reading would reveal what really happened etc. Which is maybe exactly what she intended, which is fair enough.

She was recently invited to interview Bret Easton Ellis on stage, only for Ellis to veto the choice; too young, apparently.

God he's such a prick. And he revels in his prickery too, which makes it even worse.