Woman, Eating (2022) by Clair Kohda

British author Claire Kohda

Woman, Eating 

A Literary Vampire Novel (2022) 

by Claire Kohda

   I've been involved in publishing- via my record label, for over a decade, and the hostility displayed towards artists- musicians, writers, actors, every artist at the relationship between commerce and art has always struck me as comical.  Or at the very best, an anachronistic attitude directly related to 18th century romanticism and its ideas about the genius apart as creator.  The vibe for Woman, Eating: A Literary Vampire Novel, was very Ottessa Moshfegh writes a vampire novel.   I would argue that Moshfegh has the heart of a decadent in the sense that she descends in a direct line from the prose of Joris-Karl Huysmans and his book Against the Grain.

    It goes without saying that a vampire novel that carries the subtitle of "A Literary Vampire Novel" does not take its premise of vampires particularly seriously, rather the vampire is a motif for an exploration of what it means to be mixed-race in contemporary British society, about the role food plays in the integration of immigrants.   Anyway, I loved every second- loved, loved, loved the Audiobook and the narrator of the Audiobook.  One of my favorites of the year thus far.  Certainly a top five title for me heading into the midyear. 

The Doloriad (2022) by Missouri Williams

Author Missouri Williams

Book Review

The Doloriad (2022)

by Missouri Williams

    One of the consequences of striving for gender equity in my reading is trying to avoid books written by women from well off backgrounds about the difficulties of motherhood and relationships.  I'd rather read anything else.  So when I hear about a work of literary fiction written by a woman and it is some sort of foul minded post apocalyptic nightmare about the lives of an incestuous family which has managed to survive the end of the world, I say to myself, "Sign me up!"   The Doloriad is interesting on a couple different levels.  First, there is the high modernist technique, a variety of stream of consciousness narratives by various mal-formed monster humans. 

  The Doloriad... is really something.  What it is exactly, beyond foul and kinda breathtaking, and beyond that, it just stands out among the welter of sad family melodrama that dominates literary fiction in the United States, whether written by men or women.