gimley reviewed Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
Review of 'Difficult Women' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Evidently, Difficult Women means women who are difficult to read about. I found it so difficult reading that I almost gave up. Twice. It wasn't the bleakness of the stories that was bothing me. It was the relationships. Even the close ones seemed doomed. Words were never a source of communication but a way to create distance. Everyone had secrets which stayed secret. This was presented, not as a problem but as a solution. Often they were non-secret secrets which were known but not to be spoken of. It is understood that this doesn't only apply to the characters in the current story, but to the world as a whole.
Then there were the endings. The stories only stopped because they had to stop somewhere. Almost as if to say, what's the use in continuing? So maybe it was the bleakness, too.
I didn't give up because I was good. …
Evidently, Difficult Women means women who are difficult to read about. I found it so difficult reading that I almost gave up. Twice. It wasn't the bleakness of the stories that was bothing me. It was the relationships. Even the close ones seemed doomed. Words were never a source of communication but a way to create distance. Everyone had secrets which stayed secret. This was presented, not as a problem but as a solution. Often they were non-secret secrets which were known but not to be spoken of. It is understood that this doesn't only apply to the characters in the current story, but to the world as a whole.
Then there were the endings. The stories only stopped because they had to stop somewhere. Almost as if to say, what's the use in continuing? So maybe it was the bleakness, too.
I didn't give up because I was good. Suffering through reading is, after all, not like suffering through a gang rape. I was being let off easy. Who was I to complain? Well, I'm complaining now, I guess.
To be fair, the stories were often inventive and original and well written. Not often enough, though.
The most hopeful moment is the birth of Dawn which just possibly might mean that the light of the sun, which had been blotted out, could possibly return. But I wouldn't count on it.
