Hello!
I took a break last week because I went to my friend Katy’s wedding, which was beautiful and I was honoured to be part of it. I wasn’t too bothered about missing my weekly post because I hadn’t actually been reading as much and hadn’t collected my thoughts about Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions For You (out in 2023). I think I have now!
What I’ve been reading and what I think about it
I mentioned in the last newsletter that I thought Makkai’s novel would bring up questions about the true crime ‘community’ and reflected on why I thought that was a good thing. I think, overall, that that was what the novel was aiming for, but when all is said and done this was about an individual white woman’s saviour complex, which is largely what true crime ‘sleuthing’ relies on. It is about a woman called Bodie who has found minor fame as a podcaster and researcher on women in Hollywood, who returns to the private school she attended in Vermont to give specialist classes on podcasting and film. (Don’t worry, she’s not rich, she was funded by a third party, she has trauma, and so on and so forth). A significant motivation for returning is that it gives her a chance to revisit the place where her boarding roommate Thalia was murdered during senior year. Since Thalia’s murder, an online ‘community’ has become dedicated to proving that the teacher who was charged with killing her is innocent. Omar, the teacher, was a young Black man accused of selling drugs to students and being obsessed with Thalia during the trial. Bodie has found herself enmeshed in the movement to free Omar, not just because she thinks he is innocent, but because she has reason to believe that she knows who did it.
It’s an intriguing concept, both from a thriller angle and as a book that raises prescient questions about the US justice system. I can’t, however, say that it is an artfully written book — it wears its themes very heavily on its sleeve and often uses very obvious signposting to the issues that it raises. And what a huge amount of issues it raises — on top of conversations about racism, there is commentary on the Me Too movement, being ‘cancelled’ on Twitter, paedophilia, class disparities in private schools, disrupted mother-daughter relationships…that’s probably not all of it. All texts encompass a huge scale of influences, even if they don’t seem like they do, but I Have Some Questions For You just really, really wants you to know about it.
That being said, I actually enjoyed the reading of this book. Makkai’s descriptions of Granby, the school that Bodie attended and returns to, is really well done. It’s extremely atmospheric and conjures up an idealised version of wealthy American life that a lot of culture bought into 10-20 years ago (e.g. Gossip Girl, the rebooted 90210, etc.), while also shattering the illusions that surround it. I also found myself quite desperate to know who actually murdered Thalia, so it was successful in that regard.
I also read Dizz Tate’s Brutes, which is out in January 2023. Despite having a lot if similarities to I Have Some Questions For You, Brutes was also its polar opposite. Both have a lot to say about American culture and girlhood, but Tate’s novel is vague and dream-like where Makkai’s is heavy on the commentary.
It’s about a group of girls (and one boy) who live on the outskirts of a wealthy neighbourhood in poorer housing. They spend the majority of their time watching their neighbours from the apartment block they live in with their mothers, who all do night work. They have a fascination with two girls, Mia and Sammy, who have a love-hate friendship. What I particularity liked about Brutes is how it plays with memory. Much of it is set during their childhood, where the group speak as one person, but this is interspersed with narration from the present day, when the group are grown up and largely on their own. The childhood narration is hazy and strange, the same way that remembering significant events from your childhood has a veil of unreality to it. The adulthood narration is much sharper and assured, but none of it makes the childhood sections any clearer — in fact it only adds more confusion about what it is these people went through, both together and separately. An interesting read.I think a lot of people will draw similarities with The Virgin Suicides by virtue of it being about a group of girls who are languid and like to paint their nails, but really it reminded me much more of Fernanda Melchor’s Paradais (2022) in its brutality and focus on class.
Books on my radar
During the holidays, I’m hoping to read Jean Rhys’ Smile, Please (1979) and the forthcoming Lorrie Moore, I am Homeless if this is not my Home (out in June 2023). Both fave authors!
I actually can’t wait to hear how you get on with the new Lorrie Moore! Definitely on my list